Pints With Aquinas - Guys, this is serious. Seriously. (John Henry Spann) | Ep. 524

Episode Date: May 14, 2025

John Henry Spann is a Catholic husband and a father to five children, who he lives with on his farm in the southern Appalachians. He has worked in secondary education at all levels from football coach to principal. He is passionate about authentic, Catholic education, and is currently the Dean of Academics, at an orthodox Catholic K-12 hybrid school north of Atlanta, GA He frequently speaks at colleges and retreats, as well as education conferences on topics ranging from Catholic masculinity to maintaining identity and mission. He has appeared on various radio shows and podcasts covering a variety of topics related to the faith, apologetics, and the restoration of Western Civilization. John Henry's podcast: / @honest2god Book John Henry to speak at your event: [e-mail] 🍺 Want to Support Pints With Aquinas? 🍺 Get episodes a week early, score a free PWA beer stein, and join exclusive live streams with me! Become an annual supporter at 👉 https://mattfradd.locals.com/support 💵 Show Sponsors:  👉 College of St. Joseph the Worker – Earn a degree, learn a trade, and graduate without crippling debt: https://collegeofstjoseph.com/mattfradd 👉  Truthly – The Catholic faith at your fingertips: https://www.truthly.ai/ 👉 Hallow – The #1 Catholic prayer app: https://hallow.com/mattfradd  💻 Follow Me on Social Media: 📌 Facebook: https://facebook.com/mattfradd 📸 Instagram: https://instagram.com/mattfradd 𝕏 Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/Pints_W_Aquinas 🎵 TikTok: https://tiktok.com/@pintswithaquinas 👕 PWA Merch – Wear the Faith! Grab your favorite PWA gear here: https://shop.pintswithaquinas.com

Pines with Aquinas is brought to you by Truthly, which is a ground breaking Catholic AI app built to help you know, live and defend the Catholic faith. Start your 7 day free trial today when you download Truthly on the App Store. Coming soon to Android. This happened to me the other day. So you know how if you're not sure a woman's pregnant, you don't ask her if she's pregnant. Sure. Yeah. So the one lady was talking, it was clearly pregnant clearly pregnant since she was pregnant was talking about when she was due And then I asked the other one when she was due But she paused for like the worst like eight seconds of my life and my whole world like just was crushing down

I like her beads of sweat pouring down my face just she was like Do you use axe use axe body spray links in Australia, but it's the same thing same thing But and it was gross, but but see a lot of that stuff is just perfume It's not deodorant and I sprayed Axe body spray into my mouth for 10 seconds one time in exchange for $20 I hate your tattoos whoever you are. I don't care. I think tattoos up. No, not you. I mean the people show I think tattoos are lame. Actually, I think Thomas says this Thomas Quince It's a ontological fact that you can only own a cowboy hat if you have a horse He does say that so the guys who's They don't have horses in the second question 74 article 5 I think 5 or 6

You know the most intimate we've ever gotten you had said something that made me laugh my ass off and I went John Henry You're one of the funniest people I've ever met and you make me laugh like nobody else And then we just sat in that really awkward room for about 10 seconds And then you you you you actually cursed me and left. If you prefer Pepsi, I'm not saying if you can handle a Pepsi when there's no coke available, but if you prefer Pepsi, like you're not a good person. I think that's the doctrinal truth. Yeah, that's not. That's the church's teaching, I think.

So I didn't mean to laugh at your prayer. Did you laugh? Yeah, I was laughing because right before it started, you know, it was beautiful prayers, really good. Yeah. Right? Blessed Mother, you can trust this whole thing. What you said about seven seconds before that is we should do a whole hour where we just

ask chat GBT stupid questions and read it out loud. Yeah. And so for the prayer to be like lead souls to the church. Just bring them, bring them in. Bring them into chat GBT stupid questions and read it out loud. Yeah. And so for the prayer to be like lead souls to the church. Just bring them, bring them in, bring them into chat GBT questions. About autism and whether autistic kids fidget, which was the question we asked.

We're talking about fidget spinners. Yes, many autistic kids fidget. Fidgeting is a form of self-stimulatory behavior often called stimming. I fidget. I can't do, do you walk around the house when you're talking on the phone? Yeah.

I do, I run freaking laps. Like I do, I have to like go up and down the hallways and all over the place. Yeah. It's funny. Do you remember, because technology advanced different in Australia, slower, we had the cord to the wall telephones.

Yeah, we had those. You had those? 100%. So that's funny, hey? Like you had to call someone and sit down. We had the kitchen phone was a cord to the wall phone. And then we had, by the time I was nine or so, we had the little one, a little walkie talkie

that you could carry around and go within a few hundred feet. Yeah. That was pretty cool. I remember when I had my first girlfriend when I was 14, or way too young to have a first girlfriend. I didn't have a cell phone yet. And so we would call on those and it was this whole rick and the roll to hide the phone and then worry about battery. And I remember stretch because we would talk for four or five hours about nonsense all night with your girlfriend. I wish you had that audio recording 14. Youpart YouTube for four hours. I don't.

It was awful. I'd turn that into a podcast. Break it up into 25-minute increments. I can think, I remember like, I feel like, I don't know, maybe I'm the only person who does it, but I feel like a lot of people do this. Like, let's fall asleep on the phone so if we wake up, we can hear the other one breathing.

Did you do that? I wanna say yes, because I don't want you to be alone in this embarrassing story. I've heard multiple people say that. I've never done that. It's really embarrassing. I know, like, I've heard of people say that. I've never done that. It's really embarrassing. I know, like, I've heard of kids doing the laptop,

like FaceTiming, like falling asleep. Oh. Wake up, you can just stare at it. It's kind of sweet. I guess. I think it's really, I don't know, obsessive puppy love that's kind of gross. Yeah, but isn't that-

Total lack of emotional chance. Yeah, but I think that's probably, you're probably right, but I still think if you you're ever gonna be that weird over a girl, right? It should be when you're young and it'd be weird if you weren't like that when you were young even not just 14 I mean, that's clearly too young but I just had a you know teacher the theology the body classic my school st. John Bosco and I had them I Had one of their assignments I gave them these these are 15, 16 year olds, right, was to go home and ask their parents

what their rules for dating were, and I got the best. I got the best, I mean, it was all over the place, right? It was total run the gamut, but it was neat. The real assignment was, hey, mom and dad, if you haven't had this conversation with your 14, 15 year old, now's the time. Right, talking about it. And were these kids willing to ask that question?

Yeah, I mean, I think, I'm sure one or two just made some crap up during lunch and wrote it down. But I mean, a lot of them were really, really good. Like what was the answer? It was a lot of if I once said something around, if I have to drive you, it's not a date, it's a play date. I thought that was really good. Oh, that's good.

There were a lot of age stuff, 16. There were a lot of you have to be able to drive yourselves, a lot of group stuff. And don't go out by your, uh, don't be by yourself. And tell me how you asked your first girlfriend out and how old you were and how that went down. Oh my gosh. Um, I, my first girlfriend will, we'll call her Rachel cause that was her name. And she still lives at, it's not a, it's not a super unique.

I don't know. I know that I liked her. I don't know why, you know, just sort of from... We actually were in church together. I was not... Like we went to youth group together. And I don't know. I don't remember how I asked her out.

I remember going on dates. I remember the first date, date, you know, where our parents dropped us off, playdate at the movies. We went to see the medallion with Jackie Chan. Is that good? Oh, is that awful? Sounds like a movie I'd love on dates. I remember the first date date, you know, where our parents dropped us off playdate at the movies. We went to see the medallion with Jackie Chan. Is that good? Oh, it sounds like a movie. I'd love to watch it. It was awful, but I haven't seen it since then. We should watch it tonight. The second time I watch it. But it was just, I have wonderful parents, but I never had sort of the,

Hey, here's how relationships are supposed to work kind of thing. And so it was just gross and I'm embarrassed. And I remember the first time I heard of people using the language of going out with her. I didn't know what that meant. I didn't know that meant you were in some different type of relationship. And so I remember asking this guy, Nick Mazzino, good, good, good fella. Great name. Nicholas Mazzino. There's a lot of, a lot of Italians in my town. He's a great guy. But I remember saying to him like, where are you guys going out to? And he looked at me like I was the biggest idiot.

And that's how I learned what going out meant. It literally meant you're gonna go out together. Where are you going out if you're going out? Where are you going? Where are you going to? I, yeah, one thing that I've tried to do that I feel like this was just sort of a boomer generation in general issue was I never had sort of a,

hey, here's how this works. Here's how dating works. Here's how courting works, relationships work. And I don't know where I ever figured that. I mean, I didn't, I just figured it out wrong for years and years and it's gross. First girl I asked out, her name was Karen. She was so beautiful.

And I think I asked her, I was about 12 or 13. 12, that's weird. No, no, no, no, maybe 13 or, no, I was before 13. But we didn't, but see, I asked her out, I think she, I don't wanna go on the record just in case she disagrees with this assessment and starts her own YouTube channel to take me down, but I'm pretty sure she said, yeah, she said yeah,

but we just, I never spoke to her after that because I was terrified. Well, you asked her out and then you never spoke to her? Yeah. Did she say yes? Yeah, I'm pretty sure she said yes. But it was the kind of childhood type thing like, Hey, I like you. Would you go out with me?

Would you be mad? You know, that kind of thing. We've got a surprise for you, Matt. Taryn, come on out. That's what's behind this door. We've been wondering, but I never talked to her. I was terrified of her cause she was so pretty. And that was it.

That's what happened. Can I brag about myself real quick? I've never once had a girl not say yes. What about Ange, didn't Ange at first say it? No, no, so we went out. We went out, we dated for two weeks, and then we broke up. And I swear it was mutual, I really do.

I don't think, I think she says, no, I feel like I broke up with you. And I say, no, I feel like I kind of broke up with you. But regardless, we more or less said to one another, you're the worst significant other I've ever had. You and Angie? Yeah, it was great. This is his wife for those who are watching.

Beautiful. She's pregnant, by the way. Sorry. Congrats. I want to talk all about me and Angie's early relationship. Eight kids. You're a blessed man. But yeah, so we dated for two weeks and it was terrible.

It was awful. I was just two weeks and it was terrible, it was awful. I was just super selfish and she was super selfish. Like we just weren't good people. And then we broke up and then I did, what is the prudent thing to do, right? The mature, spiritually sound thing to do, which is try to get a date with a girl the next night. Like that was my goal, it was awful.

It was so gross, it was so gross. So I take this girl out, great girl, the next night and I went and got my truck washed and I bought her flowers because she lived across the hallway from Angie, from her dorm. You didn't even like her. Yeah, I don't even care, no, I know, the girl was great, she was great, she was a super pretty girl.

And so I took her out just to kind of poke Angie in the eye once again, because I was a terrible person. And then, yeah, for a couple of weeks, maybe a month or so, I kind of back and forth with this other girl. And then I told you this story before. This is great. You, you, you have, I'm going to tell it again. I think you've told it on the show too. Well, you told the story about how you and Ang were out on that balcony. Oh, that's exactly what I was going to say. You tell it again. I'll tell you.

Sure. Just make it better this time. Sure. Invent. Yeah, I'll make it up. Yeah. Uh, I want tell you sure just make it better this time sure just invent. Yeah, I'll make it up. Yeah I want you to tell this story, but I want you to insert obviously Mythical elements into the story without letting me know that that's what you're doing Yeah, I'll do two truths are alive, but I won't tell you when they are in the story All right. Yeah, so so I go to this dance with this girl who's not my bride, right? Who's not Angie? The girl that I was kind of trying to make Angie jealous, and then I sort of liked, and Angie walks out.

Her name was Pamela Anderson. Why? No, it's actually, that's true. Did you see Pamela Anderson without her makeup on? Did you see that? She just is that big thing. She's a beautiful woman. She's beautiful.

I mean, she's 60, and she's a beautiful 60-year-old woman. She is, yeah. Anyway, all of that is to say, me and Kate Upton are at this dance together, and this girl, right? And I see Angie walk out on the balcony, I followed her out on the balcony because I thought she was gonna fall back in love with me

and I was drunk as a skunk, chain smoking cigarettes, tried to convince Angie to kiss me for like 45 minutes while abandoning this great young woman at the dance. And Angie said to me, she looked at me, yeah, she said, I'm gonna paraphrase, but like you're disgusting, this is gross, you're not good enough to me, she looked at me, yeah, she said, I'm gonna paraphrase, but like, you're disgusting, this is gross, you're not good enough for me, get your stuff together. And that's my message for ladies, I say that all the time.

I talk about that all the time, right? Don't try to fix a guy, don't date a guy for the sake of fixing a guy. Tell him he's disgusting. The guy needs to fix himself. Now you were drunk, but not so drunk that that didn't sink in. It sunk in, yeah, yeah, yeah.

And then I think it was almost lent, it was like a winter formal or something. And then how did you break up with Pamela? I didn't. I just like left. Yeah, it was really bad. Well, I don't know if I've asked, but see, I didn't ask many people. I didn't date much. I had kind of one serious girlfriend in my high school years.

But how would you have handled it or how should you have handled it if one of these girls went no. And what does it even mean to ask somebody out? Let me tell you how I would have handled it. Yeah, I would have said, yeah, good. I was just joking, my friends dared me. Your ears are big. I was awful.

I was just really malformed in regards to all of that stuff, right? I think one of my, a woman who I work with, who I think is amazing, she said to me the other day, I forget how this came up, but she was, she said that nothing is more attractive to a girl than a guy who can live without them, right? And I think, and so I think like,

that's really good. Yeah, I think there's like some stoic acceptance of, oh, I hate that, all right, thanks so much. I love that. Yeah, and I thought about it as true. Like I'm attracted to that. I'm attracted to guys who aren't desperate for my attention or affection, right?

Like. Yeah, why is that? I think attracted to guys who aren't desperate for my attention or affection, right? Yeah, why is that? I think it puts a lot of pressure on the woman who feels like she has to play some role that she shouldn't be playing. Yeah, because I do feel, I don't think the inverse is true. I really like the fact that Angie hates it

when I spend the night anywhere other than the house. It's like, I really just want you to be home. And I love that, I'm like, good, don't worry babe, Papa Bear's coming home. I'm gonna take care of everybody, because I'm a, I'm like, good, don't worry babe, Papa Bear's coming home. I'm gonna take care of everybody, because I'm a man, right? But she would be really grossed out if I said,

babe, I really don't like it when you leave the house, because I get nervous. What if we're in the middle of it? What if something happens? It'd be disgusting if I did that. But I think it's beautiful and endearing when she does it. Yeah, what's the worst job you've ever had? I've had a lot, really good jobs.

I think I really, but that wasn't the question. Yeah, I could stay on task. I worked at a medical briefly just like for side hustle money and a medical like warehouse in college one time for a little bit just stacking gloves, Just stacking boxes of like. Stacking them? And then wrapping them. Oh, okay.

And plastic wrap on big pallets. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. As a teenager, did you have any? Working in coffee roastery. That's kind of cool. Got inside the roaster and cleaned all this stuff. Oh wow, I didn't know that about you.

Yeah, yeah. And I was a firefighter for a couple of years. That's the best job in the world. That's a nice break. One time when I worked a physical plant for Southern Catholic College, I hit a water main and it wasn't the poop line, but because of all the mud, I had a brief, oh, okay, wait, sorry, totally unrelated.

This happened to me the other day. So you know how, if you're not sure a woman's pregnant, right, you don't ask her if she's pregnant. You sure? Yeah. So I'm standing there, I'm talking to one woman who is pregnant, has said that she's pregnant pregnant and this other woman walks up and she's pregnant She's totally pregnant. Okay looks very pretty you can tell I can I mean, it's like nine months, but like obviously pregnant and The one lady was talking it was clearly pregnant said she was pregnant was talking about when she was due and then I asked

The other one when she was due It turns out okay But she paused for like the worst, like eight seconds of my life. And my whole world like just was crushing down. I like, there were beads of sweat pouring down my face. So she was like, October, or no June, or whatever. And I was-

She was thinking it through. That was what the hesitation was? It was awful, yes. But that was the hesitation. She was like- I thought for a second that- Oh my God. She even kind of gave that face too, sort of that, and I don't know where that's going.

I don't know what that face means. Yeah. I once asked a friend of a, my friend's mom as a kid, I asked when she was going to be due and she wasn't pregnant. But I didn't, no one had ever told me never to do that. I learned the hard way. How old were you though?

Old enough, like 14 or 15. Yeah, that's bad. That's pretty bad. But you know when you're 14 or 15, you're talking to your 15. Yeah, that's bad. That's pretty bad. But you know when you're 14 or 15, you're talking to your friend's mom? It's like you're just being polite. So anything you say you think you're doing is polite. And your goal is to get out of this conversation.

When are you gonna give, when's your baby due? When's she gonna give birth? Obviously soon. Is it overdue? Yeah, that was not fun. Every year, every time Angie's pregnant, this is baby number six, I always try to get her to just say what.

Six? Oh, you said eight. Six. Gosh, how did I come up with eight? I thought you were just like projecting. Joking. Which would be great. We've talked about this how we kind of like the fact

that we kind of forget each other's kids' names. Yeah. I'd be weirded out if you liked my kids too much. You know, if I knew them exactly in order. So this is, I talk about this a lot, and I'm not sure if this is a disorder in me or not. I don't think it is. I just, like, before a kid is old enough for me

to have, like, kind of a, like, a formative conversation with, before I could look at, like, a 14-year-old, whatever, maybe middle school, and be like, dude, this is, you're not, that's not okay. Till they're old enough for me to kind of talk, not on the same level, but where they, I don't know, can, like, understand abstract concepts. I just don't like them.

Just don't really like other people's kids. Well, you liked Chiara. I remember when Chiara was a little girl, she's the most beautiful kid. Is that why? Yeah, because yeah, freckles and pale and. Yeah, maybe it's just the vast majority. I mean, I work with a lot of kids.

Like I love them, but I could never teach. I could never work with like eight year olds. I don't like holding babies who, if I drop, will die. But if they've got some, if they can make eye contact, I like holding maybe a five month up, but even that. For about two minutes. For about two minutes. But it's wild to see how my wife,

she just gravitates to babies. But it's beautiful. It is beautiful. It would be weird if she's like, I don't like babies personally. In that same theology of body class, one of the things that I probably talked about this on the show, but I have them write 10 non-physical

attributes that they find attractive and 10 non-physical attributes that they find unattractive and members of the opposite sex. Every single girl, almost every single girl always writes good with kids for attractive. It was men? For men. Okay, so the question was 10 attributes.

10 non-physical attributes that you find attractive and 10 non-physical attributes that you find unattractive. You tell me some of yours. You don't have to do 10, but what does that I find attractive? And members of the opposite sex, non-physical, just all the things that mean femininity, right? Like nurturing and it's kind of a sweetness. Yeah, just, I mean, and that's the whole reason why I do it, right? Because I want them to say, I wanna be able to say, see guys, you're desperately trying to be this kind of guy. That's not who they want you to be. See ladies, you're desperately trying to be

this kind of a girl. That's not who they want you to be. What do you think they think they should be? So, yeah. What we all thought we were supposed to be when we were that age, high school, right? You're trying to be this, the guys are trying to be this like machismo, whatever, and they wanna be quote unquote cool.

They all wanna be, what's his name from? Greece, Danny from Greece. And the girls are trying to be these, I mean, I don't think our girls are Bosco, but I mean in general, right? Just really sexually attractive in a way that's gross. They're all just trying to be cartoon characters of what they think, like men and women are.

And it's awful. And so I just like to say that out loud, right? And I stay in there, so I sign that, and then I stand at the front of the class, I spend a whole day doing it. It takes 40 minutes, 45 minutes, and I read every single one of them that they wrote. And for the most part, they're good.

I mean, the boys will be kind of dumb sometimes, right? Like I got a couple that were like unattractive like addicted to crack a Terrorist my okay, that's funny. Well done John. Yeah, but for the most part. They're really good Yeah, you know I have I like this Physically, I know he said non-physically. It's weird. I don't know why I really love a Good gap in between the two front teeth You don't see that woman with a gap. I don't know why but because it's not like Michael Strahan

What I like ladies built like Michael Strahan who's that? He's a giant football player with a huge gap between his teeth You wouldn't be fun. I'm always I'm always not getting football jokes I was just on John Crist's show and they made like eight football jokes. I'm like, I don't know what that is I don't know really so I don't I don't this is gonna'm going to sound like one of those guys who walked up to you in public. Like I don't listen to a lot of like when you interview someone, I listen to these sometimes you've got somebody cool on, right? Like it's great show. I love the show. Thanks for having me on. But I had a buddy of mine say you really got to, he needed to check out Matt, Fred and John Crist. It was really good. It was really good.

What did you like about it? It was really good. What did you like about it? I thought that John Christ was a really good cut out for the philosophical depth of modern non-denominational Christianity. Okay. I mean, that's not an insult to John Christ, for the record. That's an insult to modern non-denominational Christianity. And then I thought that...

I don't know, I thought he was really, really honest and upfront. I liked him a lot. I hope to have him on the show next time he comes on a tour, because... Every Christian music video is one of my favorite YouTube videos. But it was funny because I walked into that interview, I guess I should have known it was going to be like a comedic interview, but I went in there to like like to do what we do here. You were very much tell me about your heart Tell me what's yeah, and and about five minutes in when I realized this was gonna be comedic. I'm like I'm not changing I'm just gonna do this. No, it was great. Yeah, it was really really good. What are you reading that NFL teeth?

Yeah, I love a good gap. What I'm not saying is I like ugly teeth like teeth that are all over the place So yeah, obviously no one likes that That's not I think I think I actually have a fairly high standard for bad teeth and girls Well, I has beautiful straight teeth for the record But but I remember you saying I don't have too much information that you like a good collarbone. I do like a collarbone Yeah, I don't want to dig it anymore into what I find physically attractive women. If you're okay with that Color ones are great color mode. Yeah, when you that, that's what got me down the teeth, you know, rabbit hole.

I never knew I'd say that sentence. I was like, what's my weird thing? The teeth rabbit hole. I've never said that sentence. No one has ever used those words in conjunction. I just feel, trying to figure out a way to get off of it. Remember that time, the other things that you found?

No, I don't know, I just think. So do you think in that, where they say the 10 things they find that aren't physical, I mean, how much of that is posturing or trying to seem like a good person? Like I guess I should say someone who's. I mean, I purposely don't tell them that I'm gonna read them all out loud

to the entire class before. Oh, okay. Right, I think that goes a long way. Jenny says, this is Jenny. Everyone look at her, everyone look at Jenny. No, but it's really, and then I ask them at the end, like why, why do I, why am I reading all these out loud? And they usually give terrible answers, right?

It's usually, so we can like know who we should marry in this class. I'm like, no, Jenny, what a stupid thing to say. That's wrong. And then, but then I get into this big thing about how you all want to be these really good people because the things that the girls find attractive are the things I think that the boys deep down want to be.

Right? Which is what? Good. Confident, good. Masculine, right? So it's basically always protector, provider, sense of humor, good with kids, nice to his mom, nice to his sisters, some word that means chivalry,

sometimes it's actually chivalry. They just go down this list of what makes like a good, well-rounded man. I know I read this to you, but I want to honor my mom by reading a text message that my mom sent me this morning. So my dad is dealing with a lot of serious health issues right now. God bless him. People can pray for him. He's such a good man and he's just struggling with some stuff, eh? So I write to my mom because she's, you know, being so good to my dad. And I said, thank you for being so good to him. And listen to this is a direct quote from my mom, Matt, dad, as you know, is a wonderful husband to me and a very good provider.

If I come back again, I would marry him again. That's beautiful. Isn't that lovely? That's awesome. Come on. Yeah, that's nice. That's nice. Isn't that lovely? That's awesome. Come on. Yeah. That's nice. That's nice. I feel like I have to say something good about my mom. My mom's great too. Thanks Judy.

Um, Judy. She is, she's killing it. She's taking care of all my kids right now so I can be here. So why do you think that what's changed in teenagers, right? Cause when you and I grew up, you know, we were like sneaking out of the house, getting drunk, hooking up.

I think you're totally still doing that. Oh, are they? Yeah. Okay. I think they're totally still doing that. Oh, are they? Yeah. Okay. My kids are homeschooled. No, I mean, no, and when I say they, I mean in general, right?

Once again, I've gone off on this before. I'm in this pretty awesome school, in this pretty awesome community, right? I think that we are, there's significantly less of any of that going on. Come a little closer to the mic. Yeah, compared to most places. Yeah.

But I think there, I think. Okay. It's like, closer to the mic. Yeah, compared to most places. Yeah. But I think there, I think. Okay. It's like, wasn't it Jason Everett, were you telling me the story about Jason Everett was talking about how great it was that, you know, fewer and fewer kids were having premarital sex and I was like, well, yeah,

they're all masturbating to their iPhones. Yeah, maybe that's it. And I do feel like though, I feel like our generation, the millennial generation, was just so apathetic about everything. And so we just did all the stuff. But I also think we didn't have technology in the, you know, it hadn't advanced the way it had today.

And so Friday night comes around, what are you gonna do? Right. Watch a movie? Maybe play a video game? Yeah, a Goldeneye, baby. Oh, Goldeneye was a great game. I see what you're saying. Yeah, but you couldn't just spend hours in your room.

And in an online community, in any sense. Like even, I was of the age where if you wanted to play a game with another person, you'd have to hook up your computers physically. Which I have much less of an issue with. If you have to physically be present in the room with the person to do the thing, right? Be it video games or whatever.

But I wonder if that's just because we're old. Because I have kids, and I know of young men who'll say, no, it's just great playing with your friends. And they're on the phone with them while they're doing it. Yeah, it is strange because for decades, I felt like I'm the young, cool, hip, like- It changes quick, eh? We're the young family and then all of a sudden

I'm looking around and there's all these people significantly younger than us and it's a slow turnover. Like I still haven't quite accepted the fact that I'm not the spring. No, it's 100%, especially the more like, I went to see a doctor yesterday, way younger than me. I see a lot of priests, way younger than me. I just assume that everyone who has their crap together

is older than me. Yeah, doctors and priests are older than me. And all of a sudden. Yeah. Yeah. I remember when sports people were younger than me. You know, you watch a game of football, and you're always looking up to them,

and then all of a sudden you're 20 years old. Well, you look at these colleges and these college athletes and they look like the seniors at my high school, which are all children. They're like eight years old. It seems like little babies. It's weird. Uh, there's no way that these guys are shaving. Shaving. Yeah. Yeah. Speaking of which, I want to talk about shaving. Gentlemen need to need to shave younger. I see a lot of see a lot of teenage and college guys who just don't, they got the weird little wispies.

Yeah. Bothers me. Why do they need to shave? I know why. Because it looks gross. I don't want you to tell me. Yeah, it's just not, doesn't look good, yeah. And I get it, I mean, you're a young man,

you're kind of experimenting, you're excited to see what could be. When did you shave? When did you start shaving? I actually developed later than my friends, about a year or two. So I was probably in grade 10. My dad made me start shaving when I was in eighth grade. I did not need to shave when I was in eighth grade.

But I'm really glad he did. Is it just because he wanted to teach you? Yeah. And also I think he just wanted me to avoid having all the gross little pitchfuzz. Do you tell the boys in your school, hey, you should shave that. I also walk down the hallway, middle school usually, and I just smell somebody and I'll yell. I make loud pronouncements, not Jenny.

Sorry, poor Jenny. We don't have a Jenny at the school, but I'll say, so y'all stink, wear deodorant. I don't care if you think you're old enough to wear deodorant or not, you gotta wear deodorant. That is true. My beautiful girls are doing this extra curricular homeschool activity with these, and it's really cool,

but there's a, I'm being very cagey in how I present this, but there's a young boy there who smells like BO. And I just think the loving thing to do would be to say, look, your kid stinks. Do you think the parents just don't realize it? I think I wore deodorant way before I needed to wear deodorant too. I'm so glad my parents, I mean, I bought my kid deodorant

when he was way too young, just because I wanted him to get into the routine and hygiene and all of that stuff. Well, that's the thing. I mean, maybe that's why I'd be reluctant to pull the parent over. I'm like, yes, sounds like, is because they must know, but they don't seem to.

Do you think they know? Do you think they know? I mean, if it stinks as bad as my kids say it does. Is it an awkward thing? Is it like parents don't wanna have that awkward? I mean, that's what I run into all the time though and not about hygiene stuff I don't know what parent would notice that their child smells regularly and wouldn't tell them to hey Yeah, I don't understand. I don't know anyone who would do that

That's why I think I don't know if any amount of advice would help them because that's sure. They would know get some Maybe the good smells. No, I don't know. I've seen. I love where this conversation is going. It's just great. Thomas West is gonna have a great time. Are you talking about something more serious? No, I don't. I don't wanna do this. You're talking about the stinky kid in your kid's class.

Yeah. Yeah. I wanna be, not in the class. It's something completely separate from this class. Oh my gosh. Could you give us the name and location of our home school? Cool.

Because when I first started using deodorant, it was because of the adverts that made it seem like the girls would like you Do you use axe use axe body spray links in Australia? Yeah, but it's the same thing same thing but and it was gross but but see a lot of that stuff's just perfume It's not deodorant and I sprayed axe body spray into my mouth for 10 seconds one time in exchange for $20 Tell me how that I was in the locker room And guys said you want to spread that your mouth I will for $20. It was awful.

It was awful, yeah. I think it was four guys that gave me five bucks. How many seconds? 10. It was bad. It was really bad. What did you do after? Just drink water?

I washed my mouth out a lot, yeah. It was worth it. I would do it right now probably for $20. My friends used to spray our feet, the soles of our feet, sometimes bare feet, but most of the time with our shoes on and then we'd light them on fire and run down the street Would it just it would just burn off the yeah sort of the film? Yeah, because you can turn it to a I shouldn't on

Minecraft you can turn it a flamethrower. Yeah But you bug spray a lot of spray your shoes light them on fire run down the street We used to make bombs a lot as kids. Okay, small country. Are you you in a small country town? Yeah, we'd blow up a lot of stuff. Cherry bombs and... Letter boxes. Oh, you do that now? That's bad. School teachers.

That's actually pretty bad. Yeah, it is pretty bad. You go to your school teacher's house and blow up their mailbox? Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I mean, it didn't blow it up. It wasn't a bomb. It was just like a flame. I'm not going to explain how we made it for the sake of not getting canceled on YouTube.

What you do is would take a pipe But we did that we used to egg teachers houses, I know a guy who flushed a cherry bomb down a toilet What's it sure a cherry bomb? It's like a it's like a big firecracker. It's about the size of a cherry It's got a little yeah, and it blew up the plumbing and ruined I mean it must have been thousands and thousands. So was the fuse long enough to be outside of the no, no No, it'll stay on fire. Oh, I didn't know that. Yeah, he lit it, dropped it in the toilet, flushed the toilet.

Did he have any idea he was gonna do that? I don't think he thought it was gonna be that bad. Yeah. But I don't think he ever admitted it. I think he got away with it. But okay, so I'm not proud of us doing this. And obviously I don't think people should do this, but the kind of trouble we would get into as kids,

there was an adventure to it. Yes. So we would take cartons of eggs to the park. There was a teacher who lived across the street. We would throw all the eggs because we heard that he would chase kids. Like this had happened so frequently that this teacher got a reputation

for chasing people who did it, which made it all the more interesting. So we threw eggs all over his houses and then we went and hid. It was so much fun. We would ding dong, knock on people's doors, run away, rock their roofs. Okay, so that's what I tell people a lot about

sort of kind of post conversion college. I got into so much trouble, but it was all really good trouble. Pre-conversion, I got into bad trouble. I made bad decisions, did things I shouldn't have done, like morally. But we used to, like we got a flare gun from Walmart one time,

and we would go across this lake that was right beside the campus, and we'd shoot the flare over and you could see the security guard. He'd look up, he was in a long way away and getting his little golf cart and start driving over there, but then you could run around to the other side of the lake and when he got to where you were,

you could shoot it back over. Oh, come on. I think I got four, three or four rules in the rule book because of my hijinks, it was fun. But it was all fun. That's nice. I cut down, we used to cut down, we cut down like a pine tree

and take it into the dorm room, like for Christmas. But it would be like 12 feet tall and the ceilings were eight feet tall and it was all whatever. There's an unauthorized vehicle rule because I bought the sick go-kart for like 300 bucks from a pawn shop and you have it all over the place.

It was so fun. Yeah. I guess that's what I'm saying. Like when you have an iPhone that's as engrossing, it kind of retards your ability to do super fun, awkward things. Yeah, do dumb stuff. Bring back like good trouble.

Yeah. Ding dong ditching, all that stuff. Harmless. I mean, I guess you're included. I never did this. I remember it was some, maybe an Adam Sandler film where you take dog poop, put it in a brown bag. Light it on fire.

Did you ever do that? I always just assumed that was an American thing because I saw an American movie. I wanna hear other things you thought were American things. Cause I didn't think anything was an Australian thing. Budweiser. I saw a Crocodile Dundee. All these things that happened in America

that we don't have like prom. You don't have prom? Do you have dances? Yeah, but they're all degenerate, but maybe prom is too. I don't know. What is prom? From my experience, prom was always the classier dance. Not class E, but it was classier. But what is prom? It's the big formal at the end of the sort of towards the end of the year. Your senior year?

Yeah, guys wear tuxes and ladies wear big fancy dresses and you go and dance. Okay. Cool. I was going to ask chat GPT. Yeah. Yeah. It would probably know better than me. Go for it. Prom. And then what's that short for? Promenade. Right. I don't know what promenade means, but we had a thing called like a debutante ball. Yeah, we had debutante balls. Okay. What is prom? I probably won't even know what I'm asking it. What is prom? Prom short for promenade is a formal dance typically held at the end of the school year for high school students, especially juniors and seniors, a significant social event where students dress in formal attire. Cool. Can I brag on my school for a second?

Yeah. But then it says you can. Let me just, this last sentence. Shut up, the robots tell me, yeah. It's seen as, in fact, you could go. Just, I'm gonna, yeah, it's seen as a mile and marking the transition from high school to adulthood. Okay, yeah. I don't know that piece.

We do it all four years. So normally you can just go as a junior or a senior, right? But at Bosco we do it all four years. No, so can just go as a junior or a senior, right? But at Bosco we do it all four years. No, so I've been in education for 15 years or something. I've been a football coach, I've been a teacher, I've been on all these levels. And the past six years I've been at St. John Bosco and it is the only place I've ever been

where the dances were not some disgusting. Yeah, whatever I'm right cuz I was gross when I was in high school. They were so gross. I was just awkward I I was I was a bit of an awkward kid anyway might not surprise you But I just remember like wishing I was cool and showing up at these places and not knowing really what to do See I was I always I said serious self-esteem issues and all the stuff that I was just really good I was really good at faking it. Yeah, because you don't seem like someone who has them now. I seem amazing.

No, I just always, yeah, I just. What were you thought of in junior high? Like how did people view you? So junior high, I went to a really poor school, very rural, or rural South Georgia, really impoverished school. I was one of, I don't know, a Georgia, really impoverished school. I was one of, I don't know, a couple dozen white kids in the school, and just like, yeah, really,

really poor rural South Georgia. So, I mean, it wasn't sort of like the traditional social hierarchy that you normally think of. I didn't get picked on, which was really nice. I was always just kind of, I always had a chip on my shoulder, and I don't even know where that came from, but used to get into lots of tussles and stuff like that. I always had a mouth, I was always just kind of, I always had a chip on my shoulder. I don't even know where that came from, but used to getting lots of tussles and stuff like that. I always had a mouth.

I was always just like really willing to say things that I shouldn't have said, super imprudent things. I still struggle with that in a big way, but it was good. It was good. And then, and then high school, I moved down. I think I've gone through all that on the show. I got, got arrested for borrowing a and I was going to give it back and didn't get to, cops found it first.

I wonder if it's because you got into so many fights as a kid that you seem less afraid of physical engagements now. It's funny because you talk about fights as a kid, right? When you're 12, what does a fight look like? Yeah, but I mean, if you're a 12 year old, you're getting hit by a 12 year old, you're still hurting. Sure. You're still in pain.

Yeah. No, is that not what you meant? Sorry, I'm just asking. No, no, no, I don't know what I mean. I just, I think now that I'm older, I really, I think it's from just faking it for years. And now it's just a more comfortable kind of throw my weight around when I'm out in public.

But what does that look like? I'm 35 years old. It's like telling kids to be, when were we together in the Chick-fil-A when I went over and told off high school kids? Like that's what it means. I always wanna make it really clear that I'm not trying to be some,

playing them some swashbuckling, whatever. I just tell kids to be quiet in movie theaters and restaurants every now and then. My, I grew up in a small country town. There was one movie theater. Everyone knew everybody. So if you're at the movies, like, you kind of knew everybody.

If you didn't know their name, you knew them by sight. You knew who they were associated with. And I went with dad and my brother, and there were some boys talking behind us. Makes me so mad. But here's what my dad did. And I'm glad he did it. I get that it's cool, but I was so embarrassed.

He turned around and went, excuse me! I paid bloody good money for these tickets. Now be quiet. Me and my brother were so. Did you know the kids? It was a small town where you knew who they were? Yeah, we knew everybody, you know? Yeah.

That's why it was kind of embarrassing, but. I saw a video forever ago, and it was talking about the stages of being a dad, right? As your kid sees you, have you seen that? Oh, no, but I want to. And the first stage is, his dad's a superhero. He's literally a superhero in a cape, and he's just doing all this cool.

And then the second one is, he's like Bozo the Clown, and he's like out with his kid in dad's a superhero, he's literally a superhero in a cape and he's just doing all this cool, and the second one is he's like Bozo the Clown and he's like out with this kid in public, he's a teenager and just like honk honk, hey guys! And then eventually again, this is what made me feel good, eventually it gets up and he's like the kid's in trouble and he's in college and the dad is like don't say a word to the police officers, he'll be right there, he's like this big protector and then he's like this old, he's an older man and they're really good friends. It was beautiful. That's nice. I thought you were gonna say there's gonna be a slower transition.

So he begins by seeing you as Superman and then Superman all of a sudden has Birkenstock for some reason and then he just gradually, yeah. Were you embarrassed by your parents when you go out to big towns? Not because I'm sure everyone knew you in this small town but we did. I was just embarrassed by my parents in general, I think.

Yeah, just, I think to a normal degree. My parents were super involved with all the school stuff, especially when I was younger, because they were good parents. I was the only child. They loved me. And so they would go on the field trips and everything by middle school. Yeah.

I wish I wasn't. I did feel that way too, especially because we were in a small town, as I've said eight times in this episode, when we'd go to the big city. That's where I would really just, yeah, which I think was definitely a defect in me, I think. I mean, maybe it's part of growing up, but. When you're around strangers in a big city,

you're more embarrassed? With my family, I just felt like we looked country. Oh. Do you know? Yeah, I feel like that's cool here. You know what I mean? Like in Atlanta, if I'm wearing flannel and cowboy boots, still people like, that's cool, it's good look, totally acceptable look. Blue jeans, cowboy boots.

I've got a question for you, because I think you'd be able to wax philosophically on this. Sometimes I'll see somebody and they'll wear the cowboy boots, maybe the buckle, maybe the hat, maybe one or two of these things, and it looks authentic. And then other times it looks like they're just dressing up. Tried too hard.

Yeah, and it's not necessarily because it's fancier, because you could dress real nice and look the part. Do you know what I'm saying, and what's that difference? I think it's, actually I think Thomas says this, Thomas Aquinas, it's an ontological fact that you can only own a cowboy hat if you have a horse. He does say that, actually. So the guys who, they don't have horses.

So Pundit Sugundaya, question 74, article five, I think, five or six. He really digs into it. No, I do, I feel like people gotta understand their brand and just own their brand. I don't wear a cowboy hat. I would love to wear a cowboy hat. I wish I were that cool.

I'm camo hat though. I'm camo baseball cap. That's, I don't know why. I don't know why that's been the thing I've been doing forever. I can do cowboy boots, always wear cowboy boots, always wear the blue jeans, big fan of the button up flannel, but I feel like,

I feel like right now, as the suburbs, right, as our sort of American culture becomes this watered down whatever it is and you have all of these kids who don't know who they are and what they are, they're like desperately trying to cling onto these things that don't come naturally to them. And I mean, it's the same way, like there was a time when I was wearing all black and trying to be like a golfy,

whatever kid living in like South Georgia, redneck paradise, right? That's lame. I was doing it because I want to be different. Here, give me a new thing. And then eventually I realized, no, I'm going to just stay with the South Georgia redneck paradise.

That's who I am. So I don't know. I mean, I'm sure there's like phenotypes that work better for cowboy hats and but that's what there are things that you respect on other people. But if you were to try them, it would feel like I'm trying too hard. Is that the idea? I would respect the heck out of a French guy. If he wore like a black and white striped shirt, turtleneck and beret and carry a bag full of baguettes

around. Even in America, you wouldn't feel like that's posture. No, they were actually French. He has to be from France. The stupid mustache. Is his parents like that? What if his parents are French and he lives here? I thought we talked about this. We talked about the kilt conversation.

We talked about the rule regarding white people in America saying that they're Irish or German or whatever. All right, what's that? I figured. You're allowed to do it if you have a family member that you're sort of like directly in line with that you met. So grandma, if grandma was from Ireland and you met grandma, yeah, here's all you want.

Now, so can my kids say they're Australian? Yeah, yeah, totally. So can your grandkids, assuming that they meet you. They can claim Australian. But you can't be like your great, great grandfather migrated from Germany in 1917. And now you like talk, well, you know, you know how those Germans are, those in our borscht, right? That's lame. All right. So I

agree with what you're saying, but I just want to push back, even though you're not going to change your opinion, because it's clearly a hard and fast rule. So I don't even know why I'm bothering, but what if your great grandma you've never seen came from Germany, cooked German food, incorporated German traditions, your parents took that on as well. And it was just really, and then, no, you can't say it. No. I wish I could say yes. But unfortunately, I've already.

Once again, this is a rule. This isn't me. This isn't an opinion. This is just an aspect of reality. Yeah. Yeah, no, I like that. I like, see, I remember it was Josiah who said to me, like, you're not American. It's like, I'm glad that you're here. I'm glad you're legally American. to me, like, you're not American.

It's like, I'm glad that you're here. I'm glad you're legally American. You're not American. And I think that's right. I like that. I'm comfortable with that. Yeah, but see, I don't know if I'm comfortable with that. And I want to be.

I've wedded myself to this ship. I'm excited to be here. I identify it because I am as Australian and I'm legally American. And I'm honored. I really love that I live here. But I feel like Australia, like America, it's not an ethnicity.

So like I'm American, but I don't really identify my, because America like Australia is a gigantic place. I'm very proud to be from the South and into the whole Southern, like this subset of former Confederate deep South, whatever. Like I'm very comfortable saying that's where I'm from. I'm from South Georgia. Those are my people.

When populations of people don't intermingle a strong culture develops, right? So that's why I think someone would say like, Oh, my, my grandma, I'm German. And that means something. But it's almost like as we began to intermingle as different societies, it's like colors are bleeding into each other. And so yeah, like I think Australian doesn't. And it makes people, I think, grab on harder to things that they're less attached to, right? Because you're, let's say your grandparents moved over here from Italy and they grew up

in a little Italy in Baltimore or New York or Philadelphia or wherever, right? And they were Italian. They spoke Italian, they lived around Italians, they went to the Italian church as opposed to the Polish church. They did a lot of this, right? And then you're a few generations removed and you're part of that bleeding in and you want so badly for a thing, right? And so you're going back and grasping at this. And I get it. I totally understand it. I see that in the church, right? Like we, it's almost like the, a lot of what the abuses of the novice order you could think of this like Interculturation sure where it's like now we're looking back and we're trying to grasp Oh, yeah, and it's the same kind of awkward. It's not wrong. It's understandable

right it looks as awkward as Someone wearing the black and white striped shirt because their grandfather was French who they never met because they want an identity I love how you just accepted with me that that is an important cultural part of being French. Even makeup, the red dots. And cartoons are drawn on curly mustaches. Yeah, kind of like that in the church. But here's the question for you, because I see that a lot of people, we just want to be grounded in something. This kind of liquid modernity where we don't know who we are or where we're from or what we're about. But I don't know, like maybe it's because when you and I

were kids, we hadn't been completely washed away. And so there was less of this desire. We were at least further back, the watering down process. I'm not worried about that with my own kids, because my wife's from Maryland and grew up in just kind of suburban American. I love the disdain I see on your face when you say these words.

Whatever that is, right? And it really bothers me that my kids don't have even a little bit of a Southern accent because they don't, I mean, I've lost a lot of mine, but now I'm cognizant of it, so I'm gonna start cranking it up for them. But- They do what Jimmy Akin did.

Do you see that? Jimmy Akin moved back to Arkansas and he just decided, he even said as much, I'm gonna do it now That's great. He's like, I know it's gonna happen eventually. So I thought well, I'll just do it. So he starts he have a horse I don't think so. He wears cowboy hats. So yeah, you want him on the show. I'd be happy to sit down Sorry you had to stay in there with Karen for so long No, I think it's good though. Like, I'm not criticizing it. I totally understand. I totally understand why people want that sense of identity that's rooted in something.

But I mean, I guess sort of objectively what matters is truth, not cultural, right? So if you're Catholic, I'm sure I've gone off on this before, but I was talking to my kids in school the other day and I was talking about this kind of thing, this sort of identity thing. And I always talk about polo dads. Polo dad is sort of my stand in term. I'm not attacking guys who are polos, but it's what I think I've in my head.

For the suburban dad who lives on a cul-de-sac, cares a whole lot about his lawn and some college football team, and just really cares about things that don't matter, and just lives this kind of vapid identity-less life where he makes a lot of money and waits for his wife to go to sleep so you can go masturbate to his iPhone in the bathroom. Right. And so I do sort of say that with the same, but I see that as sort of the common America.

Now he looks a lot like me probably. Right. If I see polo dad in the airport, polo dad and me look very similar. But if I see, if I'm in the airport and I see polo dad, and then I see some guy from the depths of the Congo, wearing a collar, I immediately think. What kind of collar? Like a Catholic, like a priest. A priestly collar.

I immediately think, you're me. Me and you are gonna get along. And I would walk right over to that guy. And that's the universality of the church. That's really cool. And I'd walk through Polo Dad, and he'd drop his coffee. I'd put my hand on his face. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Insult him publicly and then me and the, we would go laugh. Yeah, have a good chuckle about it. Oh. Yeah. So, I haven't talked to you since Trump got elected. Yeah.

Are you happy about that? Oh, yeah, very. Can I tell you my favorite video you ever did? Yep. It was the 2020 election Where you did a video about why you couldn't vote for Donald Trump and you said it was because you were not an American citizen I did this long build-up. I'm so glad you found that funny. Yeah. Yeah for those watching I did a video just like he said and I looked into the camera. I'm like I just cannot

Vote for Donald Trump and it's because I don't actually, I'm not American. So yeah, but what was funny is I got a lot of texts from people who were really frustrated because they didn't even watch it. Oh, they just assumed that it was. Yeah, that's funny. Cause you and I have been through this, right? Cause I know I knew you prior to Trump getting elected,

right? Yeah, I think I got you 2012, 2013, something like that. Yeah. Right after you went to Cleveland, whatever that was. Yeah, Cleveland, Georgia for those at home. But yeah, that's right. So we saw Trump get elected.

It's just remarkable to see the difference in how he is viewed today. It's also remarkable to see how he's acting as a president that the way he didn't in his first term. I'm embarrassed, I was saying this to you in the car on the that he, the way he didn't in his first term. I'm embarrassed. I was saying this to you in the car on the way over. I'm embarrassed with how much I like him.

Like I spent so much time trying to be like the sort of moderately, I mean, bad man, done bad things for sure. But you know, he's, I think he might do some good stuff for the country, obviously lesser to evil. And that this time I'm just like, yeah, baby, let's do it. And I, cause I don't like changing my mind about anything. Facts don't usually change my opinions about the stuff, which is gross.

I don't know what it says about me. But yeah, so I'm kind of embarrassed by how much I like him. I've liked JD Vance before it was cool, so I feel OK with that. Yeah. No, I'm very happy. But I'm also nervous.

And not so much now, but I would say after shortly after the election, there was this like joy that felt inordinate, maybe not joy, but like excitement. And I knew it was inordinate and I had to like, okay, calm down. Sure. Like, but no, I'm very, it's very good. Cause you just think like the alternative would have been, imagine right now if Kamala was laughing and saying things. I mean the first, I don't know what day we're on, week six or something.

I mean it's been all the things, all the things that I didn't think were gonna happen. I thought this will slow the decline, but for the first time ever, I keep saying this, I'm optimistic. I don't know, I have never in my life ever thought about politics, like been optimistic about America. I was telling you this, I always took this

sort of weird line trying to be cool and hipstery of, like, I mean America's the best we got, but I'm not terribly, I'm not patriotic, right? And now for the first time ever, I've got this, kind of have this pride. You were saying this when you went to Australia, you sent me a voicemail or something and I didn't respond for three weeks,

I'm really bad about that, but about going to Australia and you went to Australia, you sent me that, you sent me a voicemail or something, and I didn't respond for three weeks, because I'm really bad about that, but about going to Australia, and you wanted to shove it in people's faces, if they said to you, that's right. Yeah, they talked badly about America, and that's how I feel. Oh, I don't like that at all, yeah.

Yeah, I think you and I have spoken about this. It's like family. If my sister complains to me about my parents, that's okay. If you do, it's not okay. How dare you, yeah. If you go to Australia, and parents, that's okay. If you do, it's not okay. How dare you, yeah. If you go to Australia and they complain about America, who do you think you are? 100%.

To complain to an American, like sure, you can complain behind closed doors to other Australians, I don't care what you do. But it'd be like if an Australian came here and you met them at a coffee shop and you just started dumping on their country, like who the hell are you? Why do you think that?

But for some reason- I feel like foreigners feel like they can do that about America and nobody else. Yes, I see that. As an outsider, I see it. I just think, yeah, who do you think you are? So that just makes me really. But is that an inferiority complex, you think?

I think so. With all other countries? I also think there's a real concerted effort to kind of demonize America in the West, right? In Europe and Australia. In America too, I think. Yeah, yeah, but America, in the West, right? In Europe and Australia. In America too, I think. Yeah, yeah, but that also bleeds over. Well.

See, I talk about all of them. Okay, put it this way. America is the loudest one in the room. Yes. So if the country is a classroom, America is always talking and here it goes again. So in that sense, just like you'd get annoyed with the loudest one in the room,

you kind of get a bit, and it's not like, what is America, you know, but all of our television shows are American. So you just, America's always in your face. I think it's all an inferiority complex. I'm not trying to chest beat. No, I think that's part of it. I agree with you.

I agree with you. But I also think it's because it's, again, if you were a gigantic, powerful nation, and we never heard from you, I don't know if there'd be so much animosity. It is interesting though, because my favorite newscast for a while was out of Australia after the election.

I'd watch Sky News, this girl who had lefties losing it. Hello, she was like this Iranian woman who was a Muslim convert to Christianity. And then she just had a segment on her show and it was all American politics, which was weird. Everyone was Australian. I think it shows.

Yeah, but I started saying it's weird to see how much Trump has become cool in a lot of mainstream culture. When you compare that to his 2016 run, I was at a burger shop with my wife recently and there was this, if you said, what does he look like? I would say he looks like a black rapper you know yeah and he's wearing a Trump hat right I'm just seeing that everywhere and you and I were talking about how for some reason the Democrats just for the first time just don't seem cool like they got bad lame recently and I don't understand why right like I don't

get the I mean the whole the whole fact that I don't understand why, right? Like I don't get the, I mean, the whole, the whole fact that, I don't know, the cool spectrum has shifted around this 76 year old guy. And now everyone I see who's openly liberal is the lamest person. And it wasn't like that. I mean, even I've never considered myself sort of left wing, right? And by lame, you even just mean superficially lame in the way that maybe conservatives were super superficially lame. I'm talking primarily superficially lame in the way that maybe conservatives was superficially lame. I'm talking primarily superficially lame. Yeah, that's all I'm really talking about.

Yeah. I mean, in the way that you saw Mitt Romney in 2008, who was just the, or 2012, just like this kind of nerdy weirdo. You were like, oh, straight, kisses his kids, like grown son on the lips on camera. It's just kind of this weird, weird, right? Yeah.

It's like, I guess I like his fiscal policy. I don't know. Right, and Barack Obama was cool. I guess I like his fiscal policy, I don't know. And Barack Obama was cool. I'm sorry, Barack Obama was cool. He was saying different things. He was up there kind of having his Barack Obama swagger and whatever. He was cool.

And it's totally flipped. I mean, name a cool person. Name a cool person who's openly, like, loudly a Democrat. Even celebrities and stuff now, it seems like. Yeah, because when I think, I just think of people like Whoopi Goldberg or, that's it, Gavin Newsom. I think middle-aged and up white women

with short hair and grating voices, that's what I think. 100%. That's like the base of the Democratic Party right now. And it seems like they know that. Or at least- The Democrats? Well, it feels like they're not, I don't know, I'm not a political commentator, but it does, it feels like maybe some voices on CNN

and MSNBC are beginning to be like, we need to find someone to rally around because we're- I listened to a Gavin Newsom interview. He seems kind of cool. Not politically, obviously, I think a lot of what he believes is horrendous, but he just presented as cool. He was talking to-

I don't want to speak negatively of him, but he- I think it's okay to speak negatively of Gavin Newsom. Well, he just seemed a bit smarmy talking to... I don't want to speak negatively of him, but he... I think it's okay to speak negatively of Gavin Newsom. Well, he just seemed a bit smarmy to me. I don't know. I think he's very smarmy. But he did an interview with the TPUSA guy. What's his name? I don't know, but I know who you mean. And he seemed like, I don't know, I kind of like listening to him. So what you're saying was despicable. I wonder if the more savvy Democrats are going to now moderate super hard. Need to learn.

Yeah, yeah, I need to agree that men shouldn't be beating women in women's sports and things like that in order to have a chance. Yeah, it's an interesting time to be alive. Yeah, I'm excited to see what happens. Like I said, I've never been super duper optimistic before. And you know, like I know that there's a lot of truth to talking about like hero worship, you know, Trump,

you know, people get way too into Trump, feel like you can't produce. I think that's all true. And I, you know, but it's nice to just let an American be excited about their country for a little bit. Like, can we have 10 seconds just to be inordinately happy? When did you live here full time for the first time? 2006.

Okay, so you missed it. Like in 2004, maybe 2003, I don't know, I was late middle school, early high school, we invaded Iraq, right? And that was a very exciting time to be American. Right. And I think the Iraq war, like we shouldn't have done that, right? That's got a lot of criticism for George L. B. Bush. I think he pulled the wool over a lot of conservatives eyes, and I think he's pretty shmarmy but I remember being at my house watching the news as like a Angsty teenager like it was the Super Bowl It was the American shock and all campaign and all that was on the screen were like

Cruise missiles blowing up Iraqi stuff and then our tanks just running over like their armored vehicles and stuff And it's just felt really good Yeah Anyway, I kind of feel that way right now. Yeah metaphorically our tanks just running over. Yeah Okay, Tom Homan. Why do you wish he was your dad and would you be gay if he was? The most masculine dude, so I want to start by saying, I remember we were driving back, you and Peter came to go hunting with me in North Georgia. And on the way back after we went to the process, we were talking about Tom Homan. And for whatever reason, I thought I had heard that Tom Homan was like 38 years old.

And if you know what Tom Homan looks like, he's a rough 38. It's a really, really rough 38. And yeah, so I've just refused to let that go. And I think every time you mention Tom Homan, I say- You're like, I can't believe he's 27. Yeah, and then the guy is killing it for 27. No, I love the guy. I love everything about the guy. I love his total lack of politicization.

He's not concerned at all about what anybody thinks about him. He's not even a political guy. He's like, we're going to do this thing. And he's threatening to arrest the mayors of politicization. Like he's not concerned at all about what anybody thinks about him. But he's not even a political guy. He's like, we're gonna do this thing. Like I, and he's threatening to arrest the mayors of every city. He's so cool. He's amazing. I want him to tell me he's proud of me. So bad. Can't you just imagine that meaty fist grabbing your shoulder and say, you did good. Like he would never say I love you. I don't expect him to ever say, if he were my dad, he would never say I love you. I wouldn't trade my dad for Tom Homan, but. If I was asked to trade my dad for someone.

If I had to. He'd be on the short list. I want to get a coffee and come back. Okay. And then light the cigar. I want to do that too. Good, good. I've been talking a lot lately about my friends at the College of St. Joseph the Worker, you know,

Jacob Imam, Mike Sullivan, Andrew Jones and company, the guys who started the college that combines the Catholic intellectual tradition with skilled trades training. Well, listen to this. They're growing their program and are looking to connect with experienced Catholic tradesmen to hire as instructors. So if you are an experienced carpenter, plumber, HVAC technician or electrician, and wanna help mentor and teach future Catholic tradesmen, go right now to collegeofsaintjoseph.com slash careers to connect with the college

and see how you can become part of something truly special. And if you're watching or listening and know a tradesman who needs to hear this message, please invite them to reach out to the college. Again, that's college of stjoseph.com slash careers, college of stjoseph.com slash careers. Thanks. We're back. Can I tell you three things that annoy me that probably shouldn't and three reactions

I have to these annoying things that are clearly immature, but it's my thing. I'll tell you whether or not it's reasonable, yeah. All right, number one, if I see someone wearing a mask, I, yeah, like in the States here post-COVID, I walk away from them and pretend that they must be deathly ill and I don't wanna catch what they have.

With the exception of- Oh, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry. I agree, but for me, it's with the exception of- Oh, sorry, sorry, sorry. I agree, but for me, it's with the exception of people who are Asian. That's okay if they're Asian? Yeah, I think just about my whole life, I've seen like in Japan and Korea, they're always wearing the mask up in public.

So yeah, if I see a white person with a mask on, then I- What do you do? I mean, yeah. I just assume they're bad people. And I shouldn't, once again, I'm not saying that's the right way to do it, but you remember- I'll get my kid like, look out, mate, they might be sick. You told me to do something.

You convinced me to do something in Steubenville. Remember this? We were at that Irish place by the school. And then there was a woman wearing a mask outside of a hotel room. I forget what you told me to go over and say to her, but I- Oh, I think I said, I hope you feel better. No, no, no, no, no.

I remember what it was. It was under her nose. This was like a year ago. This was way after COVID. And you said, I bet you won't go over there and tell that lady that supposed to cover her nose up. Please. So sorry. Yes. I like to use it for CC someone and they've got a mask, but it's under their nose. Well, you're not wearing a mask at all. Yeah. This clearly means a lot to you. And I just want you to get this right. All right. So again, this number's number one. Second thing that's kind of immature, and this is how I react, is I don't like people's dogs when they're out in public. I hate how people fawn over dogs, so I purposely ignore them.

Same with the dog guy. And I have resentment for the person with their cute little dog. I just hate that so much. Do you mean? Okay, well, there were a lot of qualifiers in what you just said. I think it stems from the fact that I believe that we live in this society that doesn't value children and now we treat animals as if they're as beautiful

and as valuable as children. So when I see someone walking their little dog around and everyone like stops to fawn over it, I'm like, no, don't, I wanna do the opposite. I wanna look with disgust that you've brought this filthy animal into this establishment. It's very- Not outside, I'm talking when people would just walk them

into coffee shops. Oh, inside in public places, that makes more sense. That's very Matt Walsh of you. Adjacent to this. If you told me that you drove around your city shooting pit bulls, I'd be fine. Have we talked about pit bulls? I don't know. I have massive disdain for pit bulls. They shouldn't exist. I'm a very, I'm, I'm very, not libertarian. It's not the right word, but I'm very like,

I don't like anybody's ability to own anything infringed I unironically think ought to be able to buy like mortars and stuff for Like if I can afford a howitzer I think I'll be able to have a howitzer But I I feel like pit bulls are a bridge too far. I hate them. I don't think they ought to exist. I Yeah, I think I think worse of you if you own a pit bull. I will say the exception might be if, I knew a guy one time who was an older guy who lived by himself and did pit bull rescue

and he got the snipped, the neutered dogs and he essentially was like, I just wanna give these dogs a life, right? And I guess I can get that, but I don't like things around my house that might maul me or a child just on a whim. I think it's awful. Yeah.

I think the message that it sends me, and this might be totally disordered and totally incorrect, but is I feel like there's a compensation that's there. You want to have this big, scary animal that you control. But yeah, I have a dog. I've told you, I love my dog. My dog, Jeff is one of my favorite living things that exists in the whole world. He goes with me everywhere he rides in my car. But you know what Jeff really likes to

do? Retrieve things. Cause he's a Labrador retriever. I thought he wants to throw sticks all the time, bring them right back. That's all he ever wants to do. Because for hundreds of years he's been bred to do that. What if pit bull's been bred to do for hundreds of years, right? I don't know, dogs are not human beings. They're not capable of abstract thought. They don't need to, yeah, I just don't, I hate them.

I really hate pit bulls. So the third thing is I hate your tattoos. Whoever you are, I don't care. I think tattoos, no, not you. I mean, the people show. I think tattoos are lame. I think tattoos, I have a tattoo, so that's why I feel like I can say this. I'm tattoos are, no, not you. I mean, the people show. I think tattoos are lame. I think tattoos, I have a tattoo, so that's why I feel like I can say this.

I'm aware that I'm a hypocrite. I think that our children will say, remember when all our dorky parents got tattoos? It's gonna be, it is 100% gonna be a dorky parent. It is so lame and so. I don't know if we've talked about this on air, but I know we've talked about this before. Tattoos would be so cool if nobody had tattoos.

If only like a if nobody had tattoos. If only a few people had tattoos, I'd be all about it. I know that we're offending 86% of the audience, but I still think your tattoo's lame, even if it's offending you. Secondly, I don't think anything less of you. I just think this is the culture we've been born into.

We thought it was cool for five minutes, and everyone got really excited about it, which again, I think might be, honestly, it might be a symptom of a culturalist society where we wanna belong when we want meaning. And so we impose meaning upon our flesh and then we give you a story about how this symbolizes this.

Yeah, yeah, but once again, I think your granddad's tattoo is super cool. I just think your tattoo's kinda like, because your granddad got that tattoo when he was on Okinawa after some big battle with his, the whatever, his naval unit or marine whatever. And then he got it like in whatever. Sorry, I'm saying whatever a lot.

But he got it for like a good, cool reason. And you got it because you had 80 bucks and an hour and a half to swing by Holy Mountain Tattoo Parlor or whatever it was. So those are three things that, what do you have in? Everything, I don't know. I have all these bizarre. The older I get, the more frustrated I get.

Yeah, but I feel like I have to, I always have to preface everything with like, I'm probably wrong. Like I'm not gonna admit that I'm wrong, but I recognize I probably am. And all of it is totally subjective. And that's kind of what I was saying too, right? I'm like, I'm not saying I'm proud to hold these opinions.

I'm just saying I do strongly. I really don't like quarter zips. I think quarter zips are kind of lame Oh, I know they are lame because they're useless. They're useless like show dogs like couch dogs Like you were saying earlier doesn't serve a purpose. What's that? I mean, what's that do? I think I have a lot of and this is pretty off-brand but I have a lot of opinions on fashion Because I think I wear the exact I've worn the exact same thing since I was like 16 years old which is like blue jeans like t-shirts or button-up flannels and I like boots right those are but and that's been in style forever right kind of like music if people are listening to

something a hundred years ago they're still listening to it they're probably gonna be listening to it in a hundred years right yeah but I was talking to one of the teachers the other day about this and just, I've always given her a hard time, I was just mentioning that she was wearing one of those big poofy vests, right? Not knocking ladies' poofy vests, you can wear your poofy vest, gals, no shade being thrown from me.

But, and it made me think about, you remember, I don't know, maybe 10 years ago, when the girls all wore the like tight fitting boots that went up to their knees, like tight fitting brown boots with a poofy vest. They all look just like Han Solo. Oh yeah. It would be Han Solo season every fall.

Oh funny. There would be a little, air would be a little crisp and all the girls would dress exactly like Han Solo. Now I've got some fashion related ones. I have, I don't know, sort of the older I get, the more pet peeves I find. That's what I do. That I have about everything.

Like there's, I have that I have about everything. I have really strong opinions about the number and type of bumper stickers people are allowed to have. Lay it out for us. What are the rules? Any bumper sticker that says you're a something mom or dad, like of a college, I think that's lame. Georgia business college mom.

Why would you do that? Why do you think that's a thing that I should know about you while I'm sitting behind you in traffic? I notice I don't care about your kid, I don't like it, not even that hard to get into, I don't think, maybe it is, but even if it's a Harvard medical whatever mom, okay.

I don't like, and this is from my own struggles with sports. I used to like sports way too much, and so now I project that on other people, which is wrong. People who have little stickers on their car that say University of Florida National Championship 2002. Like, okay, that's great. But I also have a ton of bumper stickers,

so it's totally hypocritical. Everything I'm saying makes me a huge hypocrite. I have a Terez of Lesu bumper sticker. I have a Georgia outdoor news bumper sticker. That's a magazine I write for. And I have a- Did you ever put a who saved who magnet on the back of my car?

That might've been me. That sounds like something I would do. Because you and I had talked about this, how you hate that so much. I hate it so much. No one rescued anyone of this. You bought a dog. That's who's yeah You you didn't adopt anything you didn't save anybody you purchased a dog that dog dragged you out of a burning building Then your dog saved you. Yes, but that's not what you've never saved that dog. Yeah

And I actually so I think we had this conversation and one day I showed up and there was a magnet on the back of my car Who saved her? I love whoever put it there because I obviously took it. I don't remember doing that. I've got a make Istanbul Constantinople again sticker on my truck. Where did you get that from? I made it. Yeah. I literally went online and made a red square custom sticker that said make Istanbul Constantinople again. Cause. Because I hold a lot of historical grudges from hundreds of years ago. Yeah, Istanbul belongs to the Greeks. Big shout out to, I mean, even if you can stay Eastern Orthodox, you just, you need Anatolia back. Do that. You know, they almost did it after World War I. Didn't know that. No. They did. They invaded Turkey. They should have taken it. Yeah. What else do we hate? I don't like when people pray the rosary.

I love when people pray the rosary. I don't like when I hear them whispering it in a quiet church. They don't say it loud enough, like we're all praying it together, and they don't say it within their mind, but I end up hearing just the ssss. I'm super self-conscious about praying the rosary in front of you because I've heard you say multiple times that you don't like Tacking on prayers at the end and I do I do like I do a bunch of prayers bunch prayers at the end Well, here's the truth of it. I'm okay with people adding whatever optional prayers. They want to add on I I just don't like when I don't like feeling obligated to pray what isn't essential to the rosary because I think it It just extends it beyond what it needs to be. That's what I don't like. I Feel like you just said I don't mind this thing and then you said what I don't like is this thing

I don't mind if you do it. Oh, I see, but I don't like feeling like yeah I don't care what you do, but I just don't like I love the rosary actually actually, you know You're one of the people who've really kind of encouraged me to get back into the rosary, actually. Actually, you know, you're one of the people who've really kind of encouraged me to get back into the rosary. I'll tell you why we started praying the rosary every night. It's because you shot that animal? No. Oh, yeah, that was part of it. That was a deal I'd made with God. But a big, big part of it, that's when I started praying it every day, I think. I don't know if that's when we did it as a family, but we were invited over to some friends of ourselves. They had nine kids, they have 11 kids now. Did I tell you this? And, well, I'm gonna say it again. It was awful. It was the worst rosary I've ever prayed in my life. They invited us to pray a rosary with them. And their kids are from

the ages of like eight months to 17 years old. And kids are like literally like taking off their pants in the middle of the road and screaming. And some kids are like, I wanna do this, I wanna do this, and they're like getting it raw. And the whole time I'm like, I can do this. I can do this so hard. Like, we can totally do this in my house. And now we do it every night together. You know, we do it. So now our routine is Angie makes dinner.

I've, I don't think I've ever made, I made one dinner, I think, for the family since we got married. I don't even grill. That's kind of emasculating, but it's true. And Angie makes dinner, but as a rule, she makes dinner, so we clean up dinner, right? And then she puts the baby down and we all do chores, right?

Angie doesn't do the chores. Angie's there, but she doesn't do any chores, right? And we wipe down the counters, we sweep the floors, we do all the stuff, it's me and the kids. And while we do it, we pray the rosary. So it takes about a rosary, we pray it out loud while we're moving and shuffling all over the house. It's sort of like our nightcap. And then after that, you can read,

you can hang out together, whatever you want to do. Yeah, I think perfection is the enemy of the good. And if you think that your rosary has to look a certain way, you'll end up stopping because it won't look that way. And you'll just feel like a failure and you don't want to feel like that. Right. So the way out, and so I want to thank you because we were in Namibia hunting, which is where we got that waterbuck, which we can talk about shortly. But I remember you saying, no, you should pray the rosary every night. Do it. And so

I'd say in July, because we did on and off, you know, and then of course we went through the Eastern phase and so we were doing our Eastern prayers and stuff like that, which was beautiful. But since moving here in July, we've prayed it every night and it's really nice. My wife lights the candles and then we'll just, and it's just really chill. Like my kid, if one of my kids starts complaining, I'm like, okay, go to bed. Yeah. And I've shared this on the show already, but the other night, Peter Fradd, the good boy, the wonderful champion had a blanket over his head and we didn't know what he was doing under there. He was just just mucking around. Early on in my fatherhood,

I would have been upset with that, kneel down like pay attention. But I don't care, fine. I was like, I don't care what you do, I just want you to be with me. I want this to be just a beautiful experience that you have as a family where dad doesn't get angry. What's the-

Real quick, here's what happened. After the rosary, he said, dad, it was so cool, it's so dark under that blanket, I could see all of those Bible stories. Oh, we could like envision. It was literally like an aid to meditate on the mysteries of the rosary. But 20 years ago or 15 years ago, jerk dad would have yelled at him. You know what I mean? So that was nice. Yeah, that's really cool. No, I like it. The kids fight over the decade and who gets to do what decade and how we kind of have play my daughter, Mary Margaret, who's my favorite child, I love them all the same, but I like her the most right now, right in this moment. It changes, it changes all the time. But she wrote this prayer for the baby,

like my wife's baby that she's pregnant with, and she had a lot of miscarriages, and like one a year for about five years until our youngest right now was born and now she's pregnant again. And she wrote this prayer, this beautiful prayer and like made it like an illustrated manuscript of it and ran off a bunch of copies and put them up around the house. So we added that to the rosary. But it's a cool thing about being Catholic too, because it's just really like, like, dear Lord, we beseech you for what it's just this beautiful language. She's using this old language? Yeah, it's really good.

And how old is she, first at home? 10. Yeah, she's 10, so she's not like, she's 23. It's gorgeous, yeah. Come on, that's beautiful. Yeah, it's a lot of fun. I think that, I've talked on this show, I talk, anybody who's ever heard me talk

anywhere about anything, I go off on sort of like my Luddite technophobe, everything, and I stand by all of that, but one thing that has been the biggest blessing for us is that we kind of have taken a lot of that to the extreme. We literally live, you've been in my house, on the side of a mountain with no internet access or cell phone reception in North Georgia.

No internet reception, that's great. We don't have any internet. I mean, it's financial, I don't make any money, right? And so it's a- You don't have wifi at your house? We have no wifi. Good for you. We financial. I don't make any money, right? And so it's a- You don't have wifi at your house? We have no wifi. Good for you. We have cell phone reception

in like the corner of the bedroom. Yeah. If you really need to check and text. That's part of the reason why I'm so bad about texts. Yeah. I like that you're bad with texts. I always- I appreciate it. I gotta be honest.

I know I wish I didn't, but I do feel guilty because sometimes I'll get a text from someone back in Steubenville who'll say like, nice to know you're alive. If I'll text them back after three back in student bill who'll say like nice to know you're alive if I'll text them back after three weeks And they mean well, they're not trying to passive aggressive, but I just cannot live my life Worried about people who aren't in my near vicinity unless it's my family. Yeah. No, I so appreciate you as someone who

Will not respond to my text for two weeks because then I don't feel guilty Yeah, go back and I mean if we're super important, I call you as someone who will not respond to my text for two weeks because then I don't feel guilty when I do it back. And I mean, if it were super important, I'd call you. Here's another pet peeve, and then I wanna hear more of yours. When you just have a simple service, like you just wanna get a haircut, I'm like, okay, what's your email?

What's your number? What's your blood type? They don't ask that, but I hate that. And I hate all of the forms I gotta fill out that seem useless. Like, I don't want you to know who I am. I don't want you to know my I am I don't want you to know my name. I don't want you to know my number Don't you don't need to know my address. You just need to cut my hair. I Said pet peeve. I think one thing that's really cool about ever since we've been in, you know

Our little community our little Bosco community. We've been in for a while where we're all pretty much on the same page, right? morally and regards faith stuff it's very much like Like I hope the Jews actually are, but how the stereotype of the Jews is, right? This sort of insular tribal thing, where like my car guy, my doctor, my dentist, my insurance guy, everything is kind of part

of this community. And it's always like, I got a guy, and we've got a, it's an IO group, I don't know what those are, but I know that if you send an email to this certain email address, it goes to everybody in the community, but I know that if you send an email to this certain email address, it goes to everybody in the community, and they can respond to you individually,

or they can respond to that and everyone will see it again. And it's sort of this bulletin board, and the whole thing, like half of it, is people selling stuff, and then, does anybody have a real estate agent? I'm looking for a real estate agent in the community. That's great. It's so cool.

It's so cool. So we've gotten through over a lot of that stuff. Like we do a whole lot of just face to face. I know you, you know me kind of stuff, which once again is how we're supposed to live. Exactly. Before the industrial revolution ruined everything. That's how we did it. Yeah. These faceless corporations that come and build something into town, they don't even live in, they don't care about the community.

They're just trying to make a profit. And so what it is, is it's as close as I think you can practically get to sort of like the principles of subsidiarity, because even though it's not physical proximity necessarily, it's like communal proximity. This is this is a community might live 45 minutes that way, but you're a part of this type group where I know that you're my guy for this and this and this. I got a question for you. Since I don't think you have any more pet peeves to share with me. Doesn't sound like it.

I do. I don't like it when people spend a long time with a confessional when there's clearly a line. There's no need for this. Just say your sins and get out. I preface now almost all of my confessions with forgive me if I've sinned, you know, whatever, whatever. I've got spiritual director working through all this here. And what I mean is I don't, I don't want to hear your opinion. I don't, I'm not here for counseling session. I'm here for forgiveness I just want mercy. Oh, that's so that's funny

So my critique isn't of the priest who's trying to help the penitent But I always just assumed that the penitent is like going on and on and on Yeah, like dude, there's 20 of us out here. Holy mass starts in 10 minutes. Also, you're 87 years old Like what did you do? What did you even do the old women? They do it forever Oh, maybe they're about to die and they just need to get this right. No, I always assume it's the priest. Okay. And I'll have them in there talking and talking and talking. I'm like, yeah, my spiritual director said that.

Yeah, this guy that I meet with every single month and we talk for hours on end, said that, thanks, you don't have to tell me that anymore. Like, I know I shouldn't be doing that. Yeah. But that's not what confession is supposed to be, right? It's not supposed to be counseling. Father Higgins in Dawsonville, right? He used to say that.

He had a sign outside of the confessional, I think, that said, confession is not counseling. Whoa. No, just, here's what I got. Yeah. All right, so here's another question that I thought to ask you. I give you, not that I have it,

but I give you a million dollars, but you're not allowed to spend it on anything worthwhile. You have to waste it. Okay. What do you? So so I can't pay off my mortgage can't pay off your mortgage can't take your wife on a beautiful trip to France I'm sure I have to buy stuff can't donate to charity the stuff can't be like useful for other people you have to waste it You million waste me not to buy things No, you can interpret it however. It just can't be useful.

No one can say, that's a good use of your money. Zebras. I would get a bunch of zebras. No, I've thought about that. I have. You can ask my wife. How many zebras can you get for a million bucks? Three?

No, you can get way more. Way more than zebras. There's an exotic livestock auction in Tennessee, and because Tennessee doesn't have any laws There's like seven laws in the whole state of Tennessee and but regarding animals. I'm not sure if that's a fact, but I think it is now Yeah, and I would buy about a bunch of zebras. How many do you know about a million dollars? How much is a zebra like maybe five six grand probably really so I'd get a whole bunch of zebras I wouldn't get that many but I would buy I would buy some zebras for sure

You're so funny. You have like your next-door neighbor look of it like what the hell? What did you but more is funnier right? I only have about yeah two acre pasture by my house And if it were just how many zebras can I buy for a million dollars at a fair in Tennessee? So he said auction auction I should have said at a fair in Tennessee. Is that what you said? It's a large stock auction. Oh auction, I should have said. Purchasing zebras and exotic animal auctions in Tennessee is possible with prices

typically ranging between 5,000 and 7,000. That's what I said. You could potentially acquire approximately 140 to 200 zebras. That's wonderful. I also know that's wonderful. I also know of a guy who lives in the North Atlanta suburbs who owns a tank. I think that's really cool.

Like it's an urn or whatever, it won't fire, but he owns an actual tank. That'd be cool to have. Your answer's way cooler than mine. I hadn't thought about this until I asked the question, but I think I would like to set up a kind of home studio with a VHS player and just buy all the VHS as I want As I'm saying this I realize this is a terrible

Stop maybe pinball machines and I would love a Pac-Man machine Yeah, like a miss Pac-Man machine my dad used to have one of those in his bar was killer Yeah, I don't know what I do with a million dollars waste Yeah, I don't know what I'd do with a million dollars to waste. Yeah, I'd buy like a couple of fancy consumables too. I think it'd be neat to have like a very expensive bottle of something. And then just drink it. Just like have people, not as a display piece, just have people over, right? I'd have you over because you're making me spend this million dollars. Yeah.

But mostly the zebra thing. I'd really... That's amazing. 200 zebras. Dude, you'd be the talk of the state. But mostly the zebra thing and really that's amazing. I hear hard 200 zebras Dude you'd be the talk of the state. There's this guy who lives out there 200 zebras I I think it's illegal to Without a permit or something to own the zebras. I mean I did a deep dive into this one time I was seriously considering buying a couple of zebras How much would a golden toilet cost I wouldn't do that. I just don't know how much would a solid golden toilet cost You know that gold leaf stuff either it's got to be through and through is this just chat GBT. Yeah, okay

3.5 million oh you couldn't get one I Like the idea of getting the zebras and then oh no, I don't want to mislead people Nine million two hundred twenty five thousand based on some thoughts Yeah, it would it would weigh about 98 kilos What is that in real weight? I don't know What is 98 kilos in pounds real weight? 216 yeah, that's not bad. bad yeah that's a pet peeve of mine people who use the metric system even though we're in the United States the wrong system like I don't know I don't care if you use it if you live in your

somewhere place right where they do that right you're made up you can use your made-up system in your made-up country I don't like when they use it in like the real world yeah yeah good that's okay I't like when they use it in like the real world. Yeah. Good. I feel like people do it as a superiority thing. Can I tell you what I don't like? You know how he said how fashion can work really well on somebody else, but it doesn't work well on you?

I think that's true too of people's interests. So here's an example. Like you and I both have a friend, we won't say who it is, lives in Georgia, part of our men's group back in the day. Sure. This person has a man cave, like Star Wars posters everywhere, Star Wars, even like stuffed toys.

Sure. This person's like an academic actually. And this person's in their fifties. I love this person. I think this person's a good person. I, if I saw you doing that, I wouldn't understand it. But cause I know him him I find it really cool Okay, so let me add to my so the TV the VHS I would love to get a Pentium

Those computers I used to use back in the 90s I want it fully functional and I want to be able to play Duke Nukem 3d Pandora directive and all these old games on it. I just want to hear it load up. Doom. Did you play Doom? Is that a thing in Australia? Yeah, I remember everything in America was a thing in Australia eventually. I remember laying in bed thinking if I could have a computer and play Doom, I would finally be happy. And I was.

I loved Doom was that worked. Um, I Think I think grown men and I'm probably wrong about this too, but I think grown men playing video games is really lame I said somebody who likes video games like I would love to I would really do I guess here's what I mean I think grown men who regularly play and struggle with spending too much time on their video is super like if Tonight you said dude. I just got in 64. We're going to play gold. We're going to play. We're going to do what I and there's nothing else going on. We're going to have some beers and hang out. My wife and children are handling. I know multiple guys. I've heard multiple married women complain about the amount of time their husbands spend in the

evenings playing video games. Got you. I think that's so lame. Yeah. So as a, as a, as Yeah, so here's what I've been doing with my son lately. There's this old game, I think it was made in 1992. It's a point and click adventure game. It's called Under a Killing Moon. It's a Tex Murphy thing. My son and I played it from start to finish. He was so happy. Like he would sit with me

and he didn't even want to be the one to do it, which I appreciated, right? So I got to play it. So I'd get around and find the clothes and he'd be like, yes, dad, yeah. That's still different though, you're doing it with your son, you're doing it with your son. Yeah, no, I know.

It's, it's not, I'm not saying it's great. To struggle with it is weird, right? Like you were saying, like when someone's, I wish I didn't. Okay, but how many flesh is that? I also think it's lame if you're a grown man who really, really cares about football. Right?

And once again, not watch his football, but who really like doesn't miss, spends all Sunday watching the NFL games, all Saturday, whatever, right? But I think, I still think that's less weird. Even though all you're doing is watching somebody else play the game, for some reason that feels less weird to me than you sitting down in front of the screen and playing.

So I'm wrong. I have conflicting thoughts and both of them are really strong. Tell me I'm wrong. I love it. I have conflicting thoughts and both of them are really strong. One is I'm annoyed at these things for the same reason I'm annoyed at your cute dog. But the other thought is just how about you let people live their life and they can do whatever they want. Why does it bother you?

And so it's the same thing. If someone's really into Star Wars or really into video games or really into watching football, good for them, that's great. And it's between them and their family and their God well the God our God if if if they're spending their time inordinately All right, so that's that's but on the air, but then I have the irritation Maybe I'm annoyed by football man, because I don't get it. I don't understand Yeah, like my dad's really into Aussie rules football

But I love that he's really into it Him and my mom will sit down there watch a game and you hear him screaming in the next room And I think that's a beautiful thing but I don't think I'm gonna back down on what I said because yeah, I Care I care what that guy is doing in his free time in regards to the video games or something because I care about The society that we live in and the civil you're- you're right, it's not like he's watching 12 hours of pornography every night. It's not like he's doing heroin under the bridge.

All of those things are definitely worse than spending your evenings staring and playing Red Dead Redemption 2 or whatever. I just think it's lame. And I'm super comfortable being wrong. Yeah, I wonder how much of this is our age, you know, because, you know, when you and I were kids and played video games,

the games weren't nearly as addictive as they are today. You couldn't play them forever. They weren't open world necessarily. But I even remember not wanting to play them when it was daytime or nice outside. No, I wanted to. And I loved it. And some of my best memories, right?

Here's one of my best memories from childhood. I was maybe eight, 10 years old, maybe a little older. I'd get on my BMX bike. I'd drive over, ride over to my best mate Jake's house. We would make coffee and just eat Tim Tams, these chocolate biscuits, and just play video games for hours. And it's one of my best memories.

It was so fun. Yeah, maybe it's just different. But it was also a communal experience. Maybe that's what I loved. It was me and a friend who were enjoying this thing together. It wasn't me alone in a dark room enjoying something. I remember playing Crash Team Racing, which was like Mario Kart, but for PlayStation with Crash Bandicoot and all those guys, with my cousins. And that being a blast. But I also only remember doing it when the sun was down, our parents wouldn't let us go outside.

And this makes me feel like such an old man when I'm saying this, right? No, but it's obviously objectively better. Like it's way cooler if you're outside doing stuff. Obviously, I agree with that. But again, I think, you know, don't they say that fellas need an activity that brings them together? Like women get together and they talk.

Men need even like a cigar. There's something we're doing together. We're having a coffee or we're hunting or we're playing a video game as teenagers. What's the distinction with women though? What do you mean? There doesn't necessarily have to be this, maybe I'm wrong, but this external thing that we're doing.

Like men bond by doing something together. Whether it's going on a hike or going to have a beer or, you know, but I don't think you'd ever come over to my house, we'd sit across the table and just talk. Although that's what we're doing, isn't it? But with this, I hear it, there's stuff involved, there's stuff involved. Yeah, I don't know. I, my point is just that that video game was the thing that my friend and I were both enjoying together. And it was that experience, I think that made it beautiful. That's interesting, the distinction between how men and women interact with with one another. Yeah, maybe I'm wrong, though, because I mean, women get together to have a drink,

obviously, and have coffee, I think. This seems counterintuitive to me. I don't know if I would have if I would have felt this way. 10 years ago, I feel that women tend to have do a better job of having a larger group of less intimate friends and men tend to have a smaller group of more intimate friends, which I would have said was ridiculous and not true in the exact opposite five years ago. And that's just kind of women. Women had more intimate female relationships and men had lots of shallow like, just eat wings and drink beer. I have very few guys who I really consider friends, close friends. Um, but all of them are pretty like intimate and I can talk about real things with all of them. And my wife absolutely has friendships like that too, but not, not, but she has a much

larger group of friends. That's a lot more kind of surface level. I'm not really getting into this. Yeah. I think what's tough when we start talking about these things is we always have to, I mean, we always have to be careful not to overgeneralize because people's personalities are so different. You know, like you, let's say a fella marries a woman and she has a particular way of doing things. It's tempting to say women are like this. So you're like, actually your woman is like this and good for her. Right. Yeah. Here's an example. Michael Knowles was talking about how men like to wheel and deal. Whereas women don't because they don't like confrontation. That's just not true of my wife. My wife enjoys confrontation. If we went to buy a car, I'd

let her do the wheeling and dealing because she would absolutely crush it. Right. That's my point. So I get that in this day and age where we don't know what men and women are, there's this desire to concretize the two of us so that men are only like this and women are only like this, like men like football and women like getting their nails done. Right. But I just think we've got to be really careful when we do that because we can alienate people and make them feel less manly if they don't like football

or less feminine if they have like a, I think there's truth to it, right? Like I think it's true that most women are not confrontational when compared to men. I think there's a stereotype and it's a stereotype for a reason, it's just not always the case. Most of the most masculine men I know don't do many of the traditional masculine things that I like to do, right?

A lot of the fathers that I and husbands that I want to be a lot more like Yeah Don't like to do any of the stuff that I view as really masculine I was talking about this talking about this much spiritual director a while back. I'm not sure if I'm not sure that if I had had a better understanding of masculinity at a younger age I would like to do all the Traditionally masculine things that I like to do all the traditionally masculine things that I like to do, right?

I wear flannel, I drive a pickup truck, I like to hunt, fish, guns, all that stuff, right? And I wonder, I mean, I really do like all of those things, but I wonder how much of that is coming from John Henry Spann when he was 12, 13, 14 years old, trying to figure out what a man was and then gravitating towards, like these are the traditionally, I should do these things. And that came with a lot of the

bad stuff too, right, in regards to the way that I interacted with women and all of these things. And then as I got older, as I really came into the faith, saying, okay, so I'm going to remove some of the sinful stuff from this, but I'm going to keep all these things because I've grown to really appreciate and like this. I actually think you're a really cool guy if you're super into something that I'm not remotely into. Yeah. But you're like really passionate about like model trains. I think dudes who like to build models are cool as crap. I have no desire to build a model train, but I think it's really neat that you do.

Is that because there's a craft to it? Yeah. Working with your hands and doing a yeah. Doing a thing. What about if I was into like painting boats, like little replicas and boats Anyway, they're super cool. I mean there's a lot of things. What about little figurines that you play in those like war games? Like D&D figurines. Yeah, I mean I think we're moving down the ladder. That's what I'm asking I'm trying to find where that line is. Okay, so let's do something That's obviously not because I find that cool if I know someone who's super into D&D and like painting little figurines, good for them. I think being passionate about and doing real things in the real world is pretty cool. I think there's definitely a hierarchy to that, right? Like if you really like to knit doll dresses, I don't,

I wouldn't think that was super cool. I would say that's not gonna tell you I do But I don't know why other than like I've got a lot of I don't know connotations with that if that's a feminine thing Yeah, but I still think building stuff and making things with your hands is super cool I want to do a I want to do a still want to make a still I want to make moonshine And I want to sell it illegally. On Minecraft. On Minecraft. And I wouldn't mind getting arrested for it

because it'd be kinda cool if you Googled my name and there's a mugshot, there's a bootlegger up under it. That'd be neat. No, it is true. Things in the real world are always cooler. I think it's because it takes more effort and it takes more, like people who are into things in the real world just strike me as more interesting people, whether they're into super into archery or super

into photography. Oh yeah. A hundred percent. But, but it's so weird because now, and this makes us sound old too, but like, it wasn't an option to not be into things in the real world 20 years ago. Like you just couldn't, there was nothing else. Yeah. There was no other option.

There was no fake world thing you could be into. I'm sure there's always been that tradition. I would like to talk to somebody from the 1800s about what's masculine, what's feminine, because like an example, I just was talking about knitting, right? Sewing or something. We think of that as feminine, but being a tailor,

that's cool. That's right. You're a tailor, that's an awesome job. Why is that? What's that to say? As soon as I say tailor, I go from a girl, like my daughter in her little sewing closet with her sewing machine and all the pink,

to like, you've got a beautiful like leather couch and then you're standing there, oh, you look great, sir. Let me have, I'll take those in. Okay, perfect. Isn't that interesting? Yeah. Do you like to cook? Do I like to cook? You cook?

I don't really cook. I, for the last six or seven months I've been eating meat. So meat? Are you still doing that? Yeah. What about Fridays? Doing fish? I just do some eggs.

I hate fish. So it would actually be more of a sacrifice if I did eat fish, but I'll just have some eggs. But, um, but I, I, I cook steak on the grill for my wife and I. Yeah, usually. That's cool. I don't like doing that, and I. Yeah, usually. That's cool. I like doing that, but I don't really cook.

I feel emasculated by my lack of grilling expertise, which I shouldn't. Yeah. Like I'm allowed to not like to grill. Yeah. But it's funny, like you get older and you get more comfortable with yourself. Yeah.

But you still have these weird hangups from your whole life, right? That make you say things like, I feel emasculated because I don't like to grill steaks. We were at a restaurant, a fancy schmancy, like Montelucce, you ever been there? I've been near Dilanog. It's a vineyard, it's beautiful.

And my wife ordered like a big old steak. And I ordered like a pasta thing. And the waiter walks over and puts the steak in front of me and the pasta which so far So good. Okay, whatever. Yeah, but then my wife says actually Actually, I have this thing like they've Could we wait until they left and they just quietly swapped something not as dramatic But kind of is my wife like steak rare or medium rare, right?

I can't do it. I get icky with like the fat and blood yeah so I like it medium I like it medium rare sure yeah yeah or medium you know so I feel a bit emasculated yeah what a dumb thing to feel emasculated stupid yeah yeah and I feel like I ought to be at the level where I'm getting over some of that said because you're at my 40th birthday party great and Someone said I think it's true. You spend the first and we could say whatever 30 35 40 years You know figuring out what hands you've been dealt and then the rest of your life playing with those cards, right? And this goes back to your point earlier about how much of the things you're into right now was motivated maybe by poor reasons,

but I think when you're young, you have the energy and momentum to get into things. And at this stage in my life, I just can't see myself wanting to learn Latin. That's right, that's how I learned it. Wanting to learn cursive. Sure. Like I kind of would like to learn how to write in cursive.

You can't write in cursive? I can, but not beautifully. Right, right. Pretty poorly. But my children, right, they learn cursive quite beautifully. And I thought to myself the other day, I should learn that. Like, nah.

And maybe I will, maybe I won't. But the point is, I think when you're young, you've got that energy and that momentum to really, and maybe that's why it's so crucial that in your younger years, you are formed and directed appropriately. What about, do you have your kids, do you make your kids do

like the extracurricularly kind of things, like your sports? I don't, I personally, so I don't like things that take my children outside of the home. There's exceptions to this, but I really like my house being ordered and beautiful, and I don't like having to get into a car

to take them places because it interrupts the flow. Like when I come home from work I want the house tidy, I want food ready and then dad I lead him in the rosary, we read beautiful books together at night you know and then I like that. But if I come home and say okay honey tag can you take the kids here and it would just make me very unhappy. That said one of our kids does jujitsu, and it's two minutes up the road, and he loves it. So good for him. He's also learning piano, but over FaceTime with a friend in Canada, so he doesn't have to leave the house. I like that. My children, my girls are doing this cross stitch work at the

library. So my wife's always been more into let's get them into these things. And I think she's right. Because I do want them to develop these beautiful skills. It's just about how do I balance that with having a calm, rhythmic. That's my real question, right? Because I didn't, I took guitar lessons for a little while and then I quit. I dabbled in a whole bunch of different sports

and then I quit. I never had anything that I really hyper focused on. And now that I'm grown and I can't dribble a basketball really well, and I can't play anything other than like a couple couple chords from Margaritaville on a guitar. I was going to say that. You remember playing Wonderwall over at Friends? It was my house actually.

Was that your house? That was like a debate party, wasn't it? A debate party? Yeah, it was one of the presidential debates. Oh, maybe. No, that was at the putishes. Yeah, we went to the putishes to watch that, didn't we? That was the debate where he didn't do as well. That was Biden Trump.

Yeah. I thought I thought it was Trump Hillary. Oh, man. Yeah, that was great. I would be okay if my wife smokes cigars, but I would not but I live but I'm a devil that is a lie You would not be okay with your wife. Well, let me finish it, but I wouldn't be okay if she smoked cigarettes But if we sit out on the deck and she took us I actually think I'd find that kind of kind of cute But then maybe I'd kiss her and change my mind. I think you're wrong. I think that opinion is wrong. Yeah, I But then maybe I'd kiss her and change my mind. I think you're wrong.

I think that opinion is wrong. I think girls, I would much rather my wife smoke a cigarette than a cigarette. Would you? I would prefer she not. Andy has smoked about half a cigarette ever in her life and it was because I peer pressured her into doing it one time. We've been married for like eight years. Do you know my wife is wearing nicotine patches right now?

For what? Because she's gone down this rabbit hole about the benefits of nicotine. So she's not like she ever used to smoke and she's trying to come off smoking, right? But she cuts these really small patches out and she wears them I heard about a guy who did who put on a nicotine patch only when he was running And it made him love to run and it got him really into running and into really good shape I've tried doing Zinn. Yeah, I just don't like it. Oh, I like it a lot. Yeah I like a lot lot. Yeah.

I like it a lot. On my trip down from Stupendale. I may or may not have one in right now. You have a Zin in right now while you're smoking a cigar? No. Come on. I don't use the Zin. That's fantastic. That's similar, yeah.

That's fantastic. Yeah, I just don't like the feeling of it. And I know, I'm not saying these are good for me, but when I put that in my lip, the way it kind of makes my gum tingle, I just feel like this isn't good. I don't like this feeling. That's probably a thing about growing up though

Did you have was like dipping tobacco thing in Australia? Not at all all cigarettes just cigarettes just cigarettes Yeah, at least in my in my part of the world when I was a kid. It was Yeah, Grizzly wintergreen long cut like the dip cans is what everybody did and show You you drove me back for my second gum surgery from dealing with that. Not great. Don't don't use a Don't dip kids But I I just grew up doing that and the Zens or the I use the rogues Want to try the Tucker Carlson out American lip pillows? Yeah, what a great name Yeah, but it's just so much cleaner and so much easier and the only time I have to spit with him as I'm smoking a cigar or something too.

Cigars relax my body and alert my mind alert. You got me on coffee and cigars. Coffee and cigars. I never use cigars as a morning thing so I'll start hanging out. Well you never used to be on coffee. Yeah coffee guy. Are you still a big diet coke guy? You still are. It's gross. Speaking about a masculine. Yeah it is pretty gross. Masculine habits. I'm glad I don't do that anymore, but I loved it. I mean, diet coke. Diet Coke, you love diet coke too? I used to. Oh, it's so good. But I don't, obviously now I just have black coffee, steak and eggs and meat.

That's fantastic. Yeah, I just, it's the one, when I was a kid, I think my mom, if my mom were here, you should interview my mom, have my mom. She'd love it. What's up, Judy? Tell me some embarrassing stories. She'll be very honest with you about all this stuff.

Yeah. But I think she thought that Diet Coke was healthier. Yeah. Because of the word diet. Isn't that funny? And she was drinking Diet Coke and so she let me have Diet Coke when I was a kid. And I was the only soda.

Every other soda was way too sweet. Yeah. I walked out of a restaurant on New Year's Day two years ago because they had Pepsi products. That's a, there's a pet peeve. If you prefer Pepsi, I'm not saying if you can handle a Pepsi when there's no Coke available, but if you prefer Pepsi, like you're not a good person.

The Coca-Cola. That is a doctrinal, I think that's a doctrinal truth. Yeah, that's not, not even. That's the church's teaching, I think. Catechism somewhere. Communists. Yeah, I just, I really do have like a visceral disgust of all things pep I'm not even a hundred percent sure what came I have this memory of a glass of coke that I had as a kid And I remember it being the most satisfying thing that had ever happened to me

We it was a long trip to Adelaide. It was really hot outside We went to this person's house They had just pulled out the Coke from the freezer where it had been chilling. And I drank- The glass bottles? No, this one wasn't, I don't think, but I drank a glass of Coke,

and I just remember I've never been this satisfied in my life. Now, if I tried to do that today, I'd probably wanna be sick. I hate the taste of Coke. Isn't it funny how you have those memories of like a certain, like I remember, I talk a lot in my classes about the difference between happiness and joy, right? Cocaine can make you super happy, right? Pornography and

masturbation can make you happy in the moment, right? If we're defining happiness as feeling good. Kind of a rush. Yeah, it feels good for a second, right? But, and we'll always talk about like, give me an example of joy. And I think, you know, joy is doing what you ought to be doing, right? Where you are in life, joy is much more sort of a longer, slower, but better. You know, like heaven is joyful, right?

And the one moment that I always come to my mind when I think of joy was, Henry was probably six years old. We had been out all day. We were in Maryland deer hunting and we killed a deer. It was a doe. It wasn't some massive buck or anything. It was the first decent sized deer that came out.

I shot it with an arrow and we were dragging it up this hill, long hill, right? But maybe a quarter mile. It's a hard drag. He's sick. So he's making it more difficult, but I'm letting him help me because that's the right thing to do. I got so tired and so swayed. It was a cold night, but I was just so tired. And we laid down in the grass with that dead deer right beside us and looked up at the stars and just talked for a minute. Just had this little 15 minute and for whatever reason that moment just sticks in my head is like that was joy. That was I was so in that moment I was like this is right where I'm supposed to be doing

exactly what I'm supposed to be doing and this is good. This is also good. That's nice. Yeah, it was great. Yeah, I was talking with Dr. John Bergson recently and he brought up the good point that no one's joyful in like a club. They're like a nightclub. Yeah, they're excited.

Maybe, you know, there's like this like, yeah, we're part. But that's we know that's not joy. This there's like a rest in joy that isn't in just this contentedness. Contentedness. Yeah. I think about it's not a perfect analogy, but I think about that. That the difference between the word, the words happy and joy, or the difference between the words like sexy and beautiful, hot and beautiful, right?

When you see the girl in the string bikini, you know, trying to be all sexy on the beach or whatever, right, nothing about that says that is beautiful. I wanna die to myself for that. I want her to be the mother of my children. I wanna love and protect that all the days of my life. No, but there is a thrill, right? There's a thrill to it.

There's something, there's an animalistic part of our lizard brain that's attracted to in a carnal way. Yeah, it's like I want that for a moment versus I want that for a lifetime kind of thing. Ooh, that's good, yeah, that's it. Have you noticed yourself doing dad things? I mean, we've already talked about the pet peeves and the- I only do dad things, man. I love fixing random crap around the house.

That's nice. The other day I went out and I fixed a broken latch on a gate. Oh, that must have felt good. We just rewired our barn with electricity and so like it just- and like there's a big like farm-y kind of chores that we have to do, live and do the whole farm thing. But I love- it's super- I get super excited when there's like some random, like okay, the other day the latch to the handicap bathroom stall broke at school.

Super fun. Great, can't wait to get the tools out and go mess with it. I didn't end up fixing that. But toilet broke, I had to take apart the mechanism on top of the toilet and put that back together. Here's a question for you. What would be your ideal day? And you're not allowed to try to impress anybody. I know that goes without saying,

but we should say it anyway. What does your ideal day look like? And the kind of day that once you tell me it, it'll be the vast majority of your days until death. Okay. So it can't be a one off thing. It can't be like, well, I'm going to go to this like, because you probably don't want to hunt every single day Maybe you do I don't know but yeah What is your ideal day look like such that once you've articulated it it will now be because I'm magic The majority of your day is going forward Okay, I get up early early. I like to get up early I don't always get up early

But when I do I'm always really happy that I got up early like 10 minutes after I get up Do you do that like my alarm goes off and then if I force myself through it after I get up. Do you do that? Like my alarm goes off and then if I force myself through it and I'm up, now I'm up. I have a quick thought on this. I love getting up early, but if I get up too early and I try to just crush the day, you know what I mean by too early? Like it's like 4.50 and you've woken up and you just get up and then I just like, I can't man, no amount of coffee can fix this. I'm not going to enjoy this day anymore, but I do like to get up like six, 6.30. Well, I'm gonna get up at like five.

Okay. Five-thirty, right? Yeah. On this day, and I'm gonna do what I always do in the morning, me and Jeff, my dog, are gonna go pee in the front yard while making eye contact. Yeah.

We do that every morning. We really do, he always just looks at me, he wants to look at me, and so I just look at him, we both just pee, and like, I got him, he's got me. Yeah. We both know nothing's sneaking up behind us. I'll then go down and do the animal chores. I'll drink a cup of coffee while I do that,

which is pretty great. I do the animal chores every morning where the kids aren't getting up early for school because I like to let them sleep. Morning animal chores are just opening doors and refilling some water and food and stuff. And then I'm gonna go back up to my house and nobody's gonna be awake.

I'm gonna have like 45 minutes to hang out with Jeff. I really like this talk. I really like him a lot. I'm a reader. I do my like, I can do the, I do like a little 10 minute morning reflection thing every day that I only get to about 50% of the time.

But once again, I'm really happy when I do it. And then since I get to pick, my wife wakes up a solid hour before the other kids wake up and I get to hang out with her in the morning. And not like, we don't have deep conversations, but we just like sit on the couch and chit chat and read and drink her coffee and whatever. Kids wake up pretty awesome.

And then I don't have work that day, obviously, because this is my best day ever. I don't know, we go outside and do something, right? Something that like, so there's essentially two categories of my kids, there's Henry and sometimes Mary Margaret, my older daughter, right, who like to go out into the woods for the purpose of a thing, right? To pursue a thing usually. So yeah, my perfect day I'm gonna go out with Henry and Mary Margaret, they're gonna get along this time, and we're gonna walk through down a dirt road and we're gonna do not like the long sit there forever

kind of hunting, but like hunting woodcock, like a little bird that flushes or do a squirrel hunt. And we're gonna have some success with that. We're gonna go back to the house. By now it's like, I don't know, mid morning. If we haven't already done it, we'll run the trap line. We run a trap line every morning. We're gonna catch some stuff on the trap line.

You saw that picture? Did you see the picture? My daughter and that bobcat? She caught it, trap line. We run a trap line every morning. We're gonna catch some stuff on the trap line. You saw that picture? Did you see the picture of my daughter and that bobcat? She's got it. Besides her. Anyway, so we catch something cool. Then we go back to the house and we skin all the stuff out. I know that sounds weird, but skinning animals out is really fun.

It's really fun when you do it together. We'll like hang it from the basketball hoop and the kids will be doing it. And then, I don't know, something super cheesy and beautiful with everybody. And for the record, that's like sit on the porch while my kids jump on the trampoline. And it's amazing. This is contentedness, right? Throughout all this. That's what we're talking about again. It's nothing exciting.

It's just, I want to be at rest. Right. We're not big breakfast people. So like everybody's kind of on their own for breakfast. I mean, even like my six year old will make eggs and whatever in the morning. Right. We, we, we can do a big lunch, but I want my kids to go play with their friends for a little while because we're in this kind of neighborhood deep place where we have neighbors, but they're a quarter mile out the road or a ways up the road. Right. So once again, I can just hang out with my wife and I won't get into that,

but like, you know, quality time, whatever that means, right. With, with Angie. Um, and then I don't know, and this is gonna go against all the technophobe stuff. As the day gets on after dinner, I wanna have a family movie night. I love having a family, we don't have a lot of family movie nights, we don't have internet,

we have a DVD player and a television that we can pull out and set up in the living room and watch whatever. And we're gonna watch The Mummy starring Brendan Fraser. And I know that you said, I know that you said this is what I'm gonna do every single day for the rest of my life and I want to make it clear that I'm not gonna say general movie I'm saying every single day I'm gonna watch the Mummy. Is it a good movie? Have you not seen the Mummy? No but thank you I'll go get it

and watch it with my kids. Oh it's excellent it's excellent yes. Problem is I gotta buy a DVD because we don't have internet on the computer. No, the mummy's fantastic. Yeah, you want to talk about favorite movies later? Cuz I'll get it mommy. Yeah, I'm gonna get it right now where you keep talking about your perfect day It's so good. Yeah, we watch the movie and I I do what I do most nights, which is fall asleep on the couch While snuggled up with my my littles, that's beautiful. Yeah, it's great. I like that I'm gonna buy. I have a glass of bourbon, but I don't drink it until I get to the movie part.

Because if I drink bourbon too early, I'm super tired. Yeah. My rule is basically post-rosary, post-clean up in the evenings. That's a beautiful day. I think also. I win a million dollars in the lottery. Okay, that's great.

And I buy 200 zebras every day. Yeah. I mean, I suppose what's fun is we're talking about this particular stage of life, cause there's going to be a day where your children move out and you, you know, your, your perfect day would look different obviously. But I like that. I know that, um, I know that people talk, you know, sort of like they, they wax about the time at home when

their kids were little and when they were young and like, I love this. I love this time so much. Yeah. But we have so many good friends with grown children who are well formed and came back and live nearby, live nearby mom and dad. I was talking to a friend of mine the other day and they were saying, everybody who complains about little kids and what a pain in the, you know, you had all these kids, what do you have all these kids, whatever.

It's like they think that the kids never get older because we like a good friend of mine who I bring up a lot, I won't say the name, but they all their kids, their youngest is like 15. The older ones are all grown and married. I was all over Mary and they're having kids and they all move back and they all get together all the time and they're together. And there's all move back, and they all get together all the time, and they're together,

and there's this beautiful image that I constantly have in my head. I'm just like, this is the goal, right? Of sitting at the table with all the kids, and all the grand, olive shoots around the table, right? And the grandkids, and just saying like, that's joy. That's like the joy, the joyful moment, right? Yeah.

Yeah, so anyway, all that is to say is, I'm enjoying this right now, but I wonder how much of this beautiful day that you've described, you know, like that's, that's like an expression of the man you are right now. And I wonder how much of the man you are right now has been guided and tempered by your, obviously by your Catholic faith, right? Because I think when I was a teenager, if you'd have asked the perfect day, I would have given the most degenerate day imaginable. It's beautiful to see how the faith, the grace of the sacraments, the grace of prayer, the commandments of the church that you seek to abide by until you find joy in them, do kind of shape how you then want

reality to be. Like that's a beautiful day. Yeah, but I want everybody to know that because of my brokenness and sinfulness, I would, in a real day like that, I would somehow screw it up 18 different times. Like I really would. Yell at my kids. There'd be so much, I tell you what I have gotten,

I've really grown in as a father over the past, I don't know, 13 years or so that I've been a dad, is apologizing. Oh my gosh, I'm like a professional apologizer to my kids. I say a lot of I'm sorry's and that's been huge. That's been huge for our whole family of like getting over that pride and saying I'm sorry to my kids a lot. A lot. Truthly is a groundbreaking Catholic AI app built to help you know, live and defend the Catholic faith with clarity and confidence.

Whether you're navigating a tough conversation, deepening your understanding, or looking for daily spiritual guidance, Truthly is your companion on the journey. It's like if chat GPT went through OCIA, got baptized and made it its mission to proclaim the truth of the Catholic Church. But Truthly is more than just a Q&A tool, it's formation in your pocket. Take audio courses on topics like the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Eucharist, Purgatory and why the Catholic Church is the one founded by Jesus Christ. Each course is designed to be accessible, engaging and deeply rooted in the teachings of the Church. You'll also receive daily audio reflections, short powerful meditations to help you grow in

prayer and stay grounded in your spiritual life. Already downloaded by thousands of people worldwide, Truthly is transforming the way we learn, share and live our faith. One question, one course and one prayer at a time. Start your seven-day free trial today. Download Truthly on the App Store, coming soon to Android. Yeah, we've talked about this, how you and my wife have similar temperaments. She's choleric, she's, you know, I think she would say she probably struggled. I don't know if she would struggle with pride. She's like a humble person, but she- If your wife and I had married one another, about two weeks after the wedding, they would have found us dead from like mutual stab wounds. Like the whole house covered, as we were both trying to kill the other person,

neither of us would make it out. I say that as a compliment to your bride. Because she's like me and I like me. Yeah. Are you reading any good books lately? And it can't be impressive. Don't tell me an impressive book you read. Can I give you the impressive? Let me give you one impressive book. I'll give you a lot of non-impressive books. I have read, I'm not done, it's one of those, I can't just sit down and read, Gulag Archipelago. I've been fighting through that for a long time and it'll be really good and then it'll be

the exact same thing 8,000 times. And then really good. That's like an impressive one that I've read. I've been reading a lot of like post-apocalyptic EMT or EMP books recently. Like that was like a five minutes later or that. Yeah, that was the only got me into it. There's a lot of other ones. Paul Fickpang got you and me into that.

Dude, we had a sauna at his place. We were sitting out the back when we started telling us all about it. The entire series and I since read a bunch of another series and now I'm on another one. I don't like admitting it though because I feel like there, what did, I had a college professor who talked about there were so many great books to read anything that's not a great book is a way. I know, yeah, yeah, yeah. But it's like candy, right? Like sometimes it's good to have some candy. Candy is good

sometimes. So I, I talk about this more and more on my show about that. When I was a teenager, like that game, it was called Pandora Directive. People should go check it out. It's a point and click adventure game. I mentioned Under a Killing Moon. That's the prequel to Pandora Directive, right? And they were based on these books that were written by a dude called Aaron Connors. And the books, they're not good books, but they're good books. And I really enjoy just reading something that's not impressive. When I've got a taste for reading, just like when a man gets a taste for whiskey,

he immediately becomes pretentious. Oh, I prefer the Lagervun and the whatever. And then you get over that. You're like, I'll drink. It's fine. Oh, I can enjoy anything. You know, it's like that when I first got into reading one of the one of the first 10 books I read was probably

The Brothers Caramels like I immediately because it is how were you? Well, here's why I didn't read a book Until I was about nine eighteen last September last September's when I read all these books Yeah, like I read a cop. I didn't think I read any books in school. They assigned them, I didn't read them. I've been rereading a lot of books that I was assigned in college that I like did the Sparks notes of. But what's hard, it's hard to get into Dostoevsky and then enjoy anything else.

Right. But. No, well, I'm not sure if the comma is where I think it was in that sentence. It's hard to get into Dostoevsky, period. Once you're in Dostoevsky, it's hard to get into anything else. I think it's a two-parter. Yeah, I agree with that.

Because I've grinded through some Dostoevsky before I got to where I enjoyed Dostoevsky. Yeah. I read, so this beautiful image here up on the wall, John, you should show them that image on the widescreen. The little sleeping lady? The reason I got that image is there's a book of, there's Dostoevsky, by the way, of his short stories.

And that's the old woman from Prime and Punishment. Of his short stories, it's called A Gentle Creature. It's probably a four hour read. I read it at your house, you weren't there, obviously. It's like, I'm gonna go away for four hours. And I read it at your house. You weren't there. Obviously, it's I'm gonna go wait for four hours and I it broke me. I wept like I have not wept. I don't think ever in my life that book if you if you want to learn how to love your spouse better.

That book just broke me. It's just so beautiful. Anyway, Dostoevsky is gorgeous. That's it. So these EMP books, uh, I here, here's a, here's a overconfident statement. I think that if tomorrow the outside world shut down, me and my family would be fine. I'd drive to your house because I'd be screwed. Well, if EMP happens, you can't drive.

That's true. So you're going to die of malaria. Sorry. I'll think about you. If you can make it in my. So you're gonna die malaria. Sorry. I'll think about you. If you can make it in my house, you're just totally welcome. There's one way in one way out to my property. And we've got we only have chickens, ducks and goats right now. Right? I've just put potatoes in night before last. But yeah, I'd be screwed. We would be eating a lot of potatoes. Well, we live by a lake. That's actually-

That's where the malaria is gonna come from. The lake is, well, here's what I was thinking though. I was about to change topics to a zombie apocalypse. What do you do? And since we live, there's a lake, big, like big, big, big, big river on our, by us, we would probably find someone's boat and go out there and just- Then do what?

Try to wade off those zombie apocalypse. Yeah. You know, like, that doesn't seem like a good idea to go what? Try to wait off the zombie apocalypse. Yeah. You know, like, that doesn't seem like a good idea to go on the water if there was a zombie apocalypse. Can they swim? I don't think they can swim. Did you read Max, what's his name? Come on, Max Brooks, World War Z.

You know, you told me, I hear the audio book's great, but I just, I don't. But you read the audio, or you listen to the audio book. I start, it's excellent. I only listened to a bit of it. I didn't get into it. Oh, that's very good. You need to read Devolution, which is even better. Devolution. Yeah, or you listen to the audio book. It's excellent. I only listened to a bit of it. I didn't get into it. Oh, it's very good. You need to read Devolution, which is even better.

Devolution. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's Max Brooks book. I bet I've told you that before. What's that about? Bigfoot. Really? Can I?

So it's a fictional story he wrote? Yeah, it's not true. Yeah, there's a, it's a. You mean Bigfoot doesn't exist. No, the story's about this little liberal enclave in the middle of nowhere on this near Mount Rainier in Washington state. And it's this little green eco community and they're all like limousine liberals.

And it's like this fun little look or so in touch with nature, but they're really not at all. There's totally removed from nature and everything's like brought in by drones and everything. Mount Rainier erupts. They're cut off for months from the outside world and the eruption pushes this troop of Bigfoots. Like they're just giant bipedal apes, right? It's a big clan. It's very good.

So the whole story is not really about Bigfoot. The whole story. What's the code? Devolution, like the word evolution with a D in the front. The whole story is about this girl who was this kind of liberally whatever woman like understanding that she's actually a part of nature and has to act like it or she's going to die and everyone she loves is going to die and it's their battle for survival against these bigfoot it's really good come on it's a really

good book um anyway zombie apocalypse 12 000 reviews on amazon yes you should absolutely read everybody should read Devolution. Great book. There's no sex stuff, there's some language, but it's just, it's called Devolution because it's this person, this group of people reverting back to sort of this hunter-gatherer mentality that they thought

they were better than and above for the sake of survival. It's excellent. Max Brooks writes some great stuff. Who is Max Brooks? I mean, other than the fact that... You know Mel Brooks, the director of survival, it's excellent. Max Brooks writes some great stuff. Who is Max? I mean, other than the fact that- You know Mel Brooks, the director of baseballs? Yeah. That's baseball. But it's his son.

Okay. Yeah. Wow. Yeah, it's totally worth it. I don't know if you know this, I'll share it with you, but Sorinane had just put out a new story and it's one of his absolute best. I cannot wait.

Yeah. I'm so glad that you like him as much as I like him. Yeah, you put me onto him. Knife Point Horror is the name of his podcast. Check it cannot wait. Yeah. I'm so glad that you like him as much as I like. Yeah, you put me onto him. Yeah, knife point horror. Yes. The name of his podcast. Check it out. It's fantastic. Absolutely excellent. Um, I don't know how he does it. I like I really I don't He's a really interesting guy because he's um Well, he narrates my stories, right? For those who we have a my sister and I have a show called podcast called sibling horror So we write the kind of C grade horror stories.

Here's an A grade. Some of them are very good. You do some very good ones. Yeah, some of them are good. When I really want to impress somebody who runs in the circles we run in, I mentioned how Matt Fradd dedicated a book to me one time. And I don't mention that it was a self-published collection.

Short story. No need to tell them that. Yeah. But I do keep it on my bookshelf in a spot where I know I can go grab it and be like, oh, what's that? Matt Fradd, that's John, two yeah. Man, that's me, me. Another thing I appreciate about you

is that when you were doing that, you called me and you said, how do I spell your name? Like, is there a hyphen between? I was like, but no, I'm not even joking. Like, I'm not, this isn't some backhand or whatever. I was like, that's great. I like the fact that, like we were talking about this on the way over here, I can, I have a relationship with you.

That's really good. You're one of my best friends, not the wax on air, but, and I, it was just like, hadn't mentioned that my wife was pregnant for 10 weeks. Yeah. Like I don't know what that says about. Well, speaking of waxing elegant, I remember one of the, uh, one of the things that I said to you, which was like, you know, the most intimate we've ever gotten. We were sitting out after a day of hunting in Namibia, having a whiskey, and you had said something that made me laugh my ass off.

And I went, John Henry, you're one of the funniest people I've ever met, and you make me laugh like nobody else. And then we just sat in that really awkward room for about 10 seconds. And then you actually cursed me and left because the intimacy was getting too great. We're going back. Yeah. All right.

So let's talk about this. So we went hunting a couple of years ago. It was great in Africa. And then you said to me, like, let's do another trip. I advertised it and we tried to get nine men. I think within like two days Yeah, sold out and then we were able to find more room Yeah, we had more spots and then within a day wasn't it it was sold out like two hours Yeah, we weren't we won't say the priest because he doesn't want to yet. Yeah, but but we're going to Namibia to hunt

This is my idea of a good pilgrimage My wife wants to go on these boat tours and I'll do it because I love her, but I don't want to go on these, you know. But I think we should maybe do this every year. We should go to a different place in the world and shoot things and pray. I love it and I love it that we're going to have

the priest with us in the sacraments and all that. You know what my idea is for next time? What? Got a great guy in Austria. Got a great guy in Austria. If you're open to it, you're out there. Shammy, which are like mountain antelope things. I've seen them. I know what you mean. And roe deer and all of that. Because I like the pilgrimage or the retreat aspect of it. I think it's this hyper masculine thing. And you know, in hunting, like, I've got a lot of good friends who

hunt, but it's only recently that I've gotten to have really good like Christian men who hunt, because they tend to go into two categories. And a lot of guys just like to be out in the woods away from ladies and drink and cuss. And I can't be around that, not because I'm too good, but because I'm really weak. And I want to like go down to that lowest common denominator

and then I want to cuss and tell the off-color joke or whatever, and that's gross. And I don't need to be around men like that. But I mean, you haven't been in on a lot of the conversations I've been having with these guys who are going with us. They're the best guys in the world. They really are. They really are.

How many men are going with us? In addition to us and father, it's- And Liam. Yeah, it's 15. It's gonna be great. It's gonna be 19 guys, two camps. I really think that after this hunting trip, you and I will be able to get together and go,

okay, if we wanna do this annually, how is it gonna work for both of us? Cause you've put in a lot of effort and going back and forth with the fellas. It's super fun. I go to Safari Club International every year in Nashville, which is something you should consider going to, by the way. If you and Liam wanna go next year, it's super fun.

It's the biggest hunting convention in the world, and you can meet people from anywhere, any continent, anything you wanna hunt, I mean, everything from walrus and polar bear to doves in Argentina to tar in New Zealand and ibex in Tajikistan, it's so cool. You know, I'm looking forward to it. I know I enjoyed it.

Didn't I enjoy it when we went, you and me? Yeah, I think I told you that I had really low expectations for you in particular. Me too. Not as a personality flaw, but I thought halfway through you would say, I'm just gonna hang out in camp and that is kind of totally right.

But I really enjoyed it. It's the best thing ever. I mean, it's... I really enjoyed it. I didn't think, I think I was excited to go with you. Right. But I didn't know what to expect. I was afraid I'd be bad at it.

I just, and I guess I would have said, yeah, maybe after the second day, I'll just stay back at the cabin and read Dostoevsky. But I didn't, I really enjoyed it. But I'll be honest, it's still a part of me that thinks, will I enjoy this again? Like I'm not super excited about it, if I'm honest with you. I'm more, I guess maybe all the kind of details

of the trip, you're gonna, how's this all gonna work? Maybe once I get there. But I remember when we were there, it was a great time. Once you get, it's nice to be somewhere where you really are in the middle of absolute nowhere. That was the best. And where we're going this time is much further out than where we were last time.

We got hours between us and Vintuc, which is the only city of any real size, right, in Namibia, and then we're going to be even more in the middle of nowhere. I can't wait. I'm so excited. I mean, this place we were at last time was lovely. Yes.

I remember we'd get back from hunting, shower, wash the blood off me if I had blood on me. And I would, I'd come down and we would just have a whiskey and have a lovely meal. Yes. It was delicious. It's and you're expecting to be roughing it a lot more than you are. Right? You're expecting I think when you think Africa, canvas tents middle of nowhere, I was not expecting a beautiful chef and a spread every night. The place we're going this time is more,

it's more kind of, it's run by a family, right? So the mother does all the cooking and then like the father and the son are gonna be guides and we're gonna have all these, it's gonna be, it's gonna be something else. Yeah. Yeah, as I say, I think after the, cause you know, this just all kind of,

we cobbled this together. But I think after this trip, I really look forward to you and I going, all right, is this something we want to do annually? And how can it how can we what does that look like? Right? You know, I think more, I think more men need to do it. So many men have begged to get on this trip, but they can't because we sold out immediately. We had we've had a couple that dropped out because of like medical stuff or whatever. And me and Melanie worked it out. But and we have a wait list a mile long. Yeah.

Which is good. But I want to bring it together. I don't think guys realize I think it unlike hunting in general, like actively participated in nature in a way that's different than hiking. Right. Whereas actually the life or death struggle, that's the reason we exist. Right. Why we're here is because our ancestors killed things and ate things and fought against that. Right. I think it really does awaken. I saw, I see wild at heart on your bookshelf over there. It awakens this part of us that's very real and very good that we pretend

like doesn't exist because we surround ourselves with fake. Yes. I don't know if you remember as I've said this to a few people at each time, I've thought that can't be right because of the way they respond, but I recorded a video of it. So I think it is. So we had the poor man's package. That waterbuck was not on the poor man's package, right? We were driving home one night, we saw him off very far in the distance, and I went, how much, how much is it?

And they told me. You said, that, that, I want that! And stop, stop, because they were driving, and yeah. It was over 400 yards away that I shot that. But when I say that and people respond, I'm like, okay, so maybe that wasn't true. But it was, we recorded a video of it. I laid on the top of the truck.

We're shooting very high powered, long range, big scope rifle. But I remember my wife, I was like, she's like, oh, take photos of the animals. I'm like, it's not a zoo. We can't see them from where we are. Except for the giraffes who would just look at you. They would still.

I dare you. I dare you to spend $5,000. Well, one of the guys on our thing, he did. He killed a giraffe, right? I didn't shoot a giraffe. But, and I'm not knocking them, you know, whatever. That's totally, they manage them. There were plenty of giraffes.

They said, hey, we'll make you a deal on a giraffe. The giraffes are overpopulated. We have too many males right now, whatever. So it was a totally ethical thing to do. But I think just because they've been around, so, you know, they're so big and they look at this little person on the ground, they're like, what? Well, they're also really violent. Right. And you don't

think that swing their heads like golf clubs. Yeah, not off your feet. It's Yeah. When does hunting become unethical in your mind? Because a lot of people will listen to this and I'll just be completely sure just enraged that we think trophy hunting is cool. Right. Yeah. I think when it's done, when it's done purely for fun, right? I think it's fun. That's what I always tell people. I love it. I love it. And I embrace the word trophy

hunter. A lot of people say I'm a hunter, not a trophy hunter. I am. I'm 100% hunting for the biggest male that's going to look super cool. I like it decorating my wall. I love it But I mean even the reason we're hunting Namibia instead of Zimbabwe or something is because it seems like a much more Ethical system over there every scrap of the animal is being put to use we ate it at night after we killed it All of it went to the locals right every scrap of that thing got eaten So like but I always tell people I do I hunt primarily for food. I don't know. It's probably about tide. Like we only eat animals that we hunt. Right. The reason why I'm going to survive the MP or apocalypse or whatever is not because I

can hunt deer is because I can hunt and trap all the things nobody else can hunt and trap. Right. We're going to be in a lot of possums and otters and beavers and stuff like that. But, but we never I've I have never in my adulthood, and I'm ashamed of the times when I was younger and done this, right, killed an animal just for the sake of killing it. I mean, my rule even with Henry, my son, is yeah, you can go squirrel hunting,

go kill some squirrels, but you're gonna eat every single one of those squirrels that you kill. It's gonna be a meal for you because it's part of being a steward of God's creation. I think there are absolutely jerks who are out there just for the Instagram likes and just for the, to post stuff on social media. I found deer in the woods that were missing their head and just their head before. That's really gross.

I don't think people realize too that if you love these animals and want them to prosper, you should be into trophy hunting. Yes. Explain that to people who are completely confused. It's the Pittman Robertson Act in the United States. It's different in Africa, but it's a similar, I can explain that later if you want me to. In the 1930s, I think, Pittman Robertson Act did a number of things. At that time, we outlawed market hunting, meaning you couldn't hunt animals just to sell in the city. We imposed all the limits and stuff that we have right now. But the Pittman Robertson Act in particular made it so sports and sportsmen hunters lobbied for this, right? Every time you buy sporting equipment for the sake of hunting or fishing,

those tax dollars go, it's an increase, right, to pay for conservation, right? Be it conservation officers, DNR officers, right? Whoever it is. And I mean, not a lot of people know this, but Georgia, for instance, there were almost no deer in the state of Georgia except for the Okefenokee Swamp

and way up in the mountains, right? In the 1950s, 1960s, there weren't deer. Seeing a deer print in the woods was a huge thing. Now we're overpopulated. I can kill 12 deer a year, right, with my license. So can any other person who buys a hunting license in the state of Georgia. But that's all because hunters put in the money.

They lobbied to have the dates set and everything. I mean, I was talking to a kid about this the other day. We were talking about, it was bobcats, right? Last weekend, or last week, maybe the week before, over the course of the week, we killed three bobcats. I caught one. My daughter caught two, right? Mary Margaret. She's great. 10 years old. It was the size of her. And then we couldn't do it anymore. And I was talking to a kid about it. He said, well, why not like just get out there and get it. I said, well, there's seasons for everything, even squirrels, even rabbits, doves, whatever it is, there's seasons. And the seasons revolve around the animals

reproduction cycles. Right? So I can't start shooting deer in Georgia until the second Saturday in September. That's when our true season opens. And it's because that's the time when the fawns are all old enough to survive on their own, they're not dependent on mom anymore, right, and the population can grow, and then I can kill deer, right, until the end of January, archery season, in the metro area, when you have to leave them alone until the beginning of September again, to give them time. So all these rules and regulations were put into place,

right, and it's one of the only times, the only places where I really like the government interference, I think they're doing a really good job with this, because they're, yeah, it's forcing us to be good stewards of the animal population. The only reason that are currently deer in Georgia is because hunters have lobbied to make it

so that they can make comebacks. Same with turkey, same with bear. I remember the fellow who took us hunting was saying, I think he said maybe Rwanda, although I might have that country wrong. He said, since they banned trophy hunting, all the elephants have been killed. Okay, tell us that story. Yeah. So they've since reversed it. But for years, they outlawed trophy hunting, right

in Botswana. Yeah. Or yeah. And it was, I don't know if it was for everything, but it's definitely for some of like the big charismatic megafauna, right? Yeah. Your elephants and rhinos and your rafts, things that make like white people in the United States happy to see, right? And as a result, the population is plummeted because what happens, right? You live in Botswana. You're a Botswanan fella. And you've got your goats and your little garden and you don't have a whole lot of money. Your livelihood is dependent on agriculture, right? Your livestock and your crops. And there's antelope and there's elephants and there's all these

animals that are coming and eating it. They're, they're grazing the same areas that your goats are grazing. They're breaking down your fences and getting into your garden and eating your cabbages and whatever. That's a pain in the butt. Also, they're made out of meat. So why wouldn't you shoot them, right? You're going to shoot them, you're going to save your crops, you're going to save your livestock and you're going to get to eat shoot them, right? You're gonna shoot them, you're gonna save your crops, you're gonna save your livestock, and you're gonna get to eat the thing, right?

It's a great reason to kill that animal, right? But then the government steps in, and this is how the African model of conservation juxtaposes with the North American model of conservation. The government steps in and they say, hey, Matt, Botswana and Matt, don't shoot those animals, right? I know it's a pain, I know it's frustrating,

but instead, in exchange for you not shooting them, some guy, John Henry Spann's gonna come over from America, he's gonna shoot them for you, right? We're gonna regulate the ones he can shoot, so he's only shooting the males over a certain age that have already bred, all this stuff, there are genetic materials out there, and every time he kills one,

not only are you gonna get a portion of the meat from that animal, but you're also going to get paid. You're going to get money in your pocket for leaving them alone. So they've converted all the locals essentially into little conservation, our, um, officers. They, most of the anti-poaching teams, at least, I just read a great book called bringing back the lions that everybody should check out. It's, I think it takes place in Tanzania, but anyway, they hired a lot of the old poachers

with money made from hunting to be anti-poaching officers, right? So now, if you're poaching, you're taking food out of Botswana's mouth. Right, that's not okay. You don't want them to be doing that. And so it's created this, it's really rebounded the population

of all the game animals in Africa. It's super cool. Yeah, I remember when you you or somebody said to me, like, we need to bring back Rhino tusks, harvesting of Rhino tusks. You say that and it sounds terrible, but it's clearly a good idea. Right.

Come a bit closer to the mark and then tell us why. Yeah, great. So Rhino horn, right? Rhino horn. There's a huge market for Rhino horn, right? Underground black market, right? And China, right? China is a big one. I love that we're about to just promote the harvesting of rhino horn. So the reason there's a big underground black market is that there's no, you can't legally

sell rhino horn, right? Because rhinos are endangered, at least the black rhinos, like critically endangered, the white rhinos less endangered, at least the black rhinos, like critically endangered, the white rhinos less endangered, but still there's not a lot of them. You can still hunt rhinos in some places, but it's very, very difficult to do. And if you do it, your picture gets out there, all of a sudden, you know, you're out of a job,

you got news cameras outside of your house, like that dentist who shot that line, right? All these people, all this negative attention. There's a guy in South Africa though, who has got hundreds of rhinos, that he's been farming for horns for years. Like, and when I say farming, he owns hundreds of thousands of acres.

Rhinos live on it. He protects them, they breed, they ship those rhinos to other places that need a boost in the population or new genetics or whatever brought in. And rhino horns aren't, there's keratin. It's the same thing as your fingernail. You can dart a rhino.

In fact, if you want a cheap rhino hunt, you pay to trank a rhino. The guys can come in, they'll cut off the horn, right? Remove the horn. They do that so poachers can't take them. So they're not after that. But allow that guy to sell rhino horn. Allow that guy to farm rhino horn.

Drive the price down. And if I can buy farmed horn, that's the exact same thing, right? And it's a lot more abundant and a lot cheaper. And they grow back is the point. And they grow back every single, not every single year, it takes a long time. But it's, we just get all tied up in the emotion of it.

You've just now put this price on a rhino, what that's now worth. You're gonna keep that thing around. You're gonna breed those things. You're gonna, yeah. So that's good. Yeah, I'm super into it. And you know, it's kind of the only real hobby hobby I have. And it's so communal hunting too. I want to go duck hunting down here with you. Yeah, duck hunting would be fun. Because we can talk like this while we're duck hunting. We can smoke cigars while we're done. So fun. They fly over when we get down. And I think this is going to be good. Actually, I've said this to you before. I hope that if if if you feel called to this one day, you'll create something of a kind of business

for you and your family, because I think a lot of men would like to get into it, but feel intimidated by it. And so being introduced to that, they get to bond with other men. Well, and with the right kind of men, right? Because I'm not knocking hunters, the vast majority of hunters I've ever met

have been so above board, so awesome, but it's a small minority that gives everybody else a bad name, right? And when you don't have respect for the animals, I love them. I love, I kill a bunch of deer. I love those deer. I care so much about the population, if I'm just talking about white tails. But the individual is expendable, right? I am a man. I've been given stewardship over God's creation, right? I'm allowed to harvest God's creation. We see that in Genesis. And so just because I love the white tail and want them to do well doesn't mean I'm not going to kill individuals

sometimes. In fact, part of the reason why I love them is because how dependent my family is on them is the only red meat we eat, right? And so we kill deer all the time. I killed three this year. My son got one. He should have gotten two. It was my fault. I didn't get the second one. We were, I made a bad decision. We went one way. We should have gone the other way. And that's what we're gonna eat until next deer season starts. Yeah. It's good for young men too. Like thank you for letting me come up with both of my sons and you kind of introduced them to this. I mean how great that Peter Fradd. Yeah. Is it, you have the mount back? Yeah. I'll show it to you when we get back. But should have brought you some down I'm sorry no

that's totally fine but I mean the coolest part of that was when we got it ripped out the heart and gave it to him and told him to bite it yeah and he took a bite out of it so cool and it's and then you know chewed it for a few seconds spat it on the ground I mean mean, wow. We have lost. What a beautiful thing. We have lost in the modern Western world a lot of those rites of passage. Yeah.

That I think are really good. And how beautiful that for the rest of his life, he's got a story that when he was a kid with a crossbow, compound. Crossbow, yeah. Crossbow. What's the difference between a crossbow? A crossbow is this, right?

And it's a, can a crossbow be a compound and otherwise? So I mean, there's sort of three big varieties. There's recurve, which are just stick and strang like your Indian, right? And then there's compound bows, which have the wheels, right? That make it easier for you to hold a lock. But it's vertical. Yeah. Compound's a vertical bow. I think crossbow is a horizontal bow. It looks like a bow rifle. Yeah. So the fact that for the rest of his life, he gets to think about the time that he killed a deer with a crossbow and took a bite out of its heart and has a Euro amount on his watch. It's beautiful for a young boy.

But I do think too, it speaks to this like, kind of like wild, beautiful primal part of us. That's not bad. That we for the sake of civilization, it seems like whoever they are has squashed that in a big way. And it's a really good part of masculinity that we need to, like, there's a lot of unhealthy ways to express our masculinity. Hunting's a really good one. And is it good for the individual deer that gets shot through the lungs with a bow? No, that one doesn't, he doesn't particularly like that kind of masculinity. but it's, it's good for us. It's good for nature. We're participating in it. Yeah. Yeah. And I love when we went to your house to kill those chickens, just that beautiful little story or that beautiful little, uh, teaching moment of how we, we, we don't ever disrespect animals. We treat them well. This chicken got to live a beautiful

life and then we're going to cut its head off and it's going to be really quick. We're going to eat it. Yeah. We, we always, I I said my kids a lot that we don't have any problem killing animals that need to that We need to kill we have a really big issue hurting them or disrespecting them Yeah, it was always get it over as quick as possible. I've got a whole bunch of meat birds coming in pretty soon actually We've got I'm finally back to where I'm doing 50 meat chickens a year and the eggbirds and all that fun stuff. So what's something you wish you would get into or could get into, even if you think you probably don't have the energy at this stage in your life to get into.

It's a good question. I mean, I've kind of been so all in for the past decade or so doing all the hunting things and outdoors things. And I've reached a pretty steady spot there. I don't have time for anything else because that's what I do that and the farming and the livestock stuff. I'm not sure. I mean, I can take things that I wish I knew how to do, but nothing that I want to get into.

Right. I wish I could play guitar. I wish I could play banjo. Yes, that would be great. I wish that I could read Latin. Yeah, no, but this is what I mean. I mean, things you wish you could do, but you know you won't. I'm talking. So reading Latin. Yeah, no, but that's this is what I mean. I mean things you wish you're gonna do, but you know you won't.

I'm talking- So reading Latin, that's good. For some reason, me and Mary Margaret and I, my oldest daughter have been talking a lot about mountaineering. I really wanna climb Mount Kilimanjaro, just because it's cool. Like I'm at a stage in my life where I want to,

I want to do a lot of things so that when I'm an old man, I can tell stories about having done that thing, right? How did Africa falls under that category, right? I want to brag here about this hunt and this is completely me bragging. I want to preface this if someone accuses me of only saying this to look good. Yeah, that is what I'm doing. I was scheduled to fly to Ukraine to interview the only, to interview Zelensky, but the only time I could do that

was when I was gonna go hunting with you and Peter. And I got to say no. It felt good. I really decided for that to be part of the fraud law. Right. And my wife's like, no, do it, just go hunting another time. I'm like, but how cool would it be

to say to my son, you're more important than that actually. That was cool. And I'm so glad I got one. I didn't think he was going to. It's funny how when you grow up doing it, so like with Henry, my son, he will sit there silently and not like silently for six hours, not moving in like a ghillie suit with just a rangefinder, like occasionally arranging stuff. If we're sitting in the blind, we take a book, a bird book, right?

So we'll like talk about the bird, and you're barely whispering back and forth to one another, right? And Peter, I swear it was a God thing, we did our little prayer together, I was like, how do you wanna pray? And Peter's a nine-year-old kid, right? He wants to move, and he wants to shake, and what,

and I was kinda, there was this, I even told you after that first morning, I was like, ah, I'm worried that we're gonna get one, and you said, ah, it is what it is. We'll take whatever walks out. We don't have to wait for something bigger and all of that. But then he shot, what walked out in front of us was probably one of the best bucks on that mountain.

Like, he wasn't some monster 160-inch, but he was a totally decent Georgia mountain buck. Heck of a lot better than my first deer and my first buck. He was so much fun. That was a fun. That was a fun men's trip. Yeah. Yeah, there are things I wish I would maybe I Want to keep writing I enjoy writing Yeah, I've got a I don't know maybe 10,000 words or something of a book that I would love to continue to flesh out.

I don't even know what it's about yet. Forking title is testicular fortitude though. Oh, I like that. Thanks. What do you think? How do you think things like AI chat GPT and whatever results from that? How do you think that's going to end up, let's say in 10, 20 years from now and how will that affect things?

You thought about that much? Yeah. Yeah. You see you saw the movie WALL-E, right? Oh, a long time ago. Was it a cartoon? It was a Pixar thing. Yeah. I'm not going to give the answer that a lot of people give this is our society is going to look like that. It's going to be like idiocracy. No, what I think is going to happen is we're going to have a society that is like the striations have less to do with ability and more to do with motivation. Right? Because right now, if you're a ninth grade,

11th grade, whatever student in my class, you can probably get away with cheating a heck of a lot easier than you could back in the day with chat, GBT, and all this stuff. You can cheat. You don't have to, it's a lot easier to not do the work than it was when we were kids and we didn't even do a lot of the work, right?

It's a lot easier to do that. If I assign Plutarch's life of Cato the Elder, right? It's a lot easier to do that. If I assign Plutarch's life of Cato the Elder, right? You can chat GBT that and get a five paragraph summary that you're probably gonna pass the quiz on and you probably know the basic stuff that we're gonna be tested over later and all of that stuff, right? And so it has less to do now with ability

and more to do with motivation. And I think you're gonna see this striation in society of people who are totally good mindless workers, right? It's fine, it's fine. If that's what you wanna do, it's fine. But it's not good, right? You can get by. But I think then you're gonna see sort of the other strata

of people who actually, it's gonna be a motivation, it's gonna be like grit oriented almost. And there will obviously be differences. Like I don't think you're gonna be able to be a doctor who chat GBT is all your whatever But for the vast majority of jobs, I think you can Do you sometimes get papers where you're like this is clearly written by chat GBT? Yeah. Yeah, I've stopped asking kids I sit down and I say so this is from chat GBT or else I said This is all AI and I thought that works really well because nine times out of ten You just tell them. Yeah, I say alright cool. And I'll tell you this from a discipline standpoint with school stuff

Honesty really like I thought we've all been dumb. We've all been dumb teenagers. Teenagers cheat sometimes, right? If you're super honest about it or whatever it is, even if it's much worse than cheating, right? Some big moral lapse in judgment or something Yeah, well I remember when you could use computers and the red squiggly line would go under a word to tell you you've spelt it wrong. And that felt like cheating because before that,

you would have to look into a dictionary to know how to spell the word. But then it just became part of how we write papers. Yeah, right click. So I suspect that within five minutes, everyone's just going to assume that everybody's using ChatGPT to at least clean up what they've written.

It's made me, I mean, just in the last couple of years, this has become a thing. I've stopped doing essays that I send home. I do maybe one or two a year now, or I used to do a lot more. And now if it's an essay, think class, like, because even if you did chat GBT, it you still, I want to make sure that you like if you chat, you would teach summaries of the text. I still want you to be able to do the, to take, take it from an articulated in your own words. What's going to be interesting is when people are running their own podcasts and everything is fake, like you and me, people

are watching us. Yeah. You and I don't exist. Our conversation was something we told it to have. That's going to happen soon. Yes. And here's what I think will result from that. There will be a huge demand for in-person events. So the concert, instead of being a $50 ticket, it's going to be a huge demand for in-person events. So the concert, instead of being a $50 ticket, it's gonna be a $500 ticket. Poetry recital, people are gonna want that. Just like there's been this pendulum swing

when it comes to our physical capabilities, right? Just like, because there's not a lot of need for physical strength anymore because of the life we've created, but now there's this desire to go back and to be strong and to eat well. I think just like the life of the mind, just like you're saying, there's going to be this pendulum swing from, yeah, I want to, I actually want to get back to

the way people used to read books and they didn't use to use artificial intelligence. Homeric recitations. Yeah. Wouldn't that be neat? I watched, we had a thing when I was at a school years ago, great little school in Atlanta called Holy Spirit. They had a recitation on the quad of a kid who memorized all of Chesterton's Lepanto and he stood before the whole school. That's a cool thing. That's amazing. Can I talk about my school for me? Yeah, please. What's the name of your school? St. John Bosco Academy. Check it out. Coming Georgia. We just opened a new campus up North coming actually right off of John and down road. Yeah. You showed it to me as we drove up. Oh, did it go hunting?

I think you did. Or at least you pointed it. You told me exactly. So we started a new school because I've been there for six years and we've gotten to a point where we were just turning away the best families in the entire world because we didn't have physical space for them. And I'm not saying that we're the only game in town. Like there's a lot of really good schools. I love the stuff they do at Regina Chaley. It's a little different flavor than us, but I love it.

The Chesterton Academy is fantastic. If you got a Chesterton Academy near you, go to the Chesterton Academy. But we reached a point where there was no longer, like supply was so exceeding demand, and we felt like all of these families were being turned away. We're a solid, orthodox, Catholic school.

What I always tell people is it's not a good school because we have a really good mission statement. It's not a good school because we have a really good philosophy or really good curriculum, right? That's cute. But there's a lot of schools with really good curriculums and it doesn't matriculate down. But we're just about, or one of the only schools that I'm aware of ever existing that is actually in

real life, not as just a tagline concern primarily with the stuff that actually matters. The big thing I say at all the open house, I stand up in front of everybody and I say, I'm the Dean of Academics. I want to make it really, really clear that academics is not the most important thing we do or the second or the third or the fourth. It's way down that list, right? Good grades are super convenient, but like formation and salvation and virtue are all way more important. And it's a good school because we, we focus so

much, we concern ourselves so much with mission fit students and mission fit families, right? Cause no matter how good Mr. Spann's theology talk is, what matters a heck of a lot more than that is your daughter sitting in class with the six foot four guy with the square jaw line, captain of the basketball team and the cute little girl that she wants to be friends with and them saying the same things that you've been trying to inculcate in your child since she was a baby. Right. And so it's created this really beautiful healthy tribalism the whole school. I mean, it's, it's not perfect, but it's really, really good. It's 90% people who are really trying. There's no phones, there's no any of this. And yeah, we came to a head years ago when we realized

there was no space ever because the church's teaching on contraception has been really good for business when you're in education. And my daughter, Georgia, is about 18 months old, and her pre-K class is currently full. So we just opened, we decided we were going to open a new when you're in education. And my daughter, Georgia, is about 18 months old, and her pre-K class is currently full. So we just opened, we decided we were gonna open a new campus, we had a donor who came in, thank goodness we've never been bound by money. You can't buy your way in, you can't buy your way

under the board or anything like that. And so we're expanding, and it's the best thing in the world. So I did wanna just pitch that, I always try to really careful not to just pitch the school. Well, what's your website? So people can check it out if they live in Georgia. That's a great question. If you type in St. John Bosco Academy, Georgia,

yeah, the Google machine will find it. I think I told this story before. So I was the principal of another school. Yeah. And I'm not knocking that other school. They were really good at what they said they focused on, which is good colleges, right? When I give my presentations, I always pull up a big picture of kind of we got great Notre Dames and Columbia's and Naval Academies and all kinds of fancy schmancy

schools. I say, here's college, our kids get into good schools. Anyway, let's talk about stuff that actually matters. And then I say, you know, this alumni is currently in his third year at seminary, and this alumni just married this alumni, and she seminary. And this alumni just married this alumni and she's pregnant and these people just came over for dinner and she's discerning with this order. And this beautiful stuff. But when I first went to interview at the school six years ago and they said all this stuff,

really good mission statement and philosophy education, blah, blah, blah. And I thought, okay, there's a lot of schools like that. I went in and sat on a classroom. They had read Humana Vitae. You remember a classroom. They had read Humana Vitae. Have you remember the story? They had read Humana Vitae the night before. And if, you know, I assume a lot of your viewers

know what Humana Vitae is, but it talks about all this stuff. It's Paul VI talking about the hormonal contraception and saying, nope, that's still morally evil. God doesn't change his mind. And I taught it before. And teaching Humana Vitae to 16 year olds is like the first 20 minutes of saving Private Ryan right it's just blood and guts and everybody's mad at you and there you get emails from mom saying how dare you talk about this

with my kid and my daughter's on birth control for health reasons and now she feels terrible it's just awful it's awful so I'm so excited because I'm sitting in a class just watching I'm in'm in the back, right? And this girl in the front row, her name's Savannah, do you ever see Mean Girls? No. Okay, so she's what you picture when you picture like popular, happy girls. She's beautiful and just outgoing and friendly

and you just assume, I mean, unfortunately, from my own brokenness, I assume, listen, you're beautiful and popular, you're probably not very good, right? You're probably making bad decisions, right? Because that was my experience in high school, right? And she raises her hand after the teacher says something kind of innocuous, like, what do we think? We read you Montevite last night and I'm thinking, yes, I'm going to watch this big

explosion, right? This fight. And she said something to the effect of, uh, Miss Fries, I don't understand how anybody can disagree with Paul VI. I mean, you look at the objectification of women and proliferation of pornography and and it's like beautiful, virtuous, and then all these other kids start raising their hands. And that was my light bulb moment. I was gonna go code for Siemens, and my buddy works for Siemens in Atlanta, gonna go code for them or something.

And that was my light bulb, like, oh, no, no, no, I need to be here. And it's been amazing. It's the best thing. So sorry, I just, I normally don't go on these rants. Are you gonna have a cigar or should I have it? You wanna cut it in half? Yeah, let's do it. It's the best thing. So sorry. I just I normally don't go on. Are you going to have a cigar or should I have it? You want to cut it in half? Yeah, let's do it. Split it. You have the cutter? Yes, right there.

Yeah, praise God. So I'm loving it. There's a lot of good things happening. I got my kids there and we're not going anywhere. Yeah. Cheers. I tell you what is interesting, though, working at a school like we are, is that every other place I've ever worked, the pressure, the pressure to change, the pressure to just sort of alter the mission of the school has always come from the, I mean, for just to use like a modern American political parlance, right, from

sort of the left, right? You need to modernize. You need to stop talking about X, Y, and Z, because it's offending people. And at Bosco, it's fun because it's the opposite. Yeah. Yeah. Which it also like, is it good? It can be too much in the opposite for sure. But it's just funny. I was thinking about this the other day. I had a kid who or a parent who is no actually I think it was a Maybe it was alumni. It doesn't matter somebody involved in the school who was saying Why do you allow the kids to have meat in their lunch on Fridays? As I don't know cuz I'm not their mom like what do you mean? Like why are you you want me to go snatch like slices of ham off a sandwich as I know it's Friday, right?

And that this wasn't even during Lent. It was like during the normal, just the normal liturgical year. But it's those kinds of things that we're getting pushed back. We're getting pushed back on. Like we have students who want to have, I don't know, change up whatever to make it more liturgically reverent or traditional.

Rigorous, yeah. But it's all the healthy tribalism piece. When you have a school where positive peer pressures like the thing, right, that's a cliche term, but it's true when you have kids. I had to righteously, I had to talk down a group of boys last year, year before. I looked out the window of my office, looking out over the parking lot,

and there's this group of boys all standing around a car looking really ticked off. And I walked out there and I'm like, looking out over the parking lot, and there's this group of boys all standing around a car looking really ticked off. And I walked out there and I'm like, hey guys, what's going on? And essentially they had formed like a posse, like a lynch mob, because they thought that something this boy said was disrespectful to this girl,

and so they were gonna beat him up in the parking lot. And these are all like the basketball kids and the popular kids. I'm like, all right, guys, this is called righteous anger. Love where your head's at. Also also what you're saying right now does not Like that guy didn't deserve to have this skull caved in with a tire iron right so let's bring it back up But but it's cool the the quote-unquote popular kids at the school are the kind of kids who we just did like run the rosary Rally, we just had a rosary rally. We had Bishop Strickland there

It's just cool, man. It's so cool. Yeah know, didn't one of your kids start that rosy road? Remember a few years ago? Yeah, I think they reached out to you. It's okay. I understand, but I didn't go to anything. All right. Let's see. I've got a bunch of fun questions. I wanted to ask you. Okay. This is the first one I've ever done that wasn't live. So we're not pulling from the yeah. Well, I actually have questions, but that's for our locals only segment, but here's some What's some conspiracy theories you kind of want to believe?

Okay. So. Not saying you believe it, but maybe you looked into it. I want to believe all of them, right? I wish I were cool enough to believe that the world was flat or hollow or the moon landing was fake. Like I want to believe so many conspiracy theories. And before COVID, I thought I was edgy. And now I'm just so not edgy.

Like everyone cool now believes everything that I believed before COVID, right? All the whatever. But so yeah, I definitely don't believe that the world is flat. I think it would be really cool if I did believe it. I wanna live in a world that's exciting. What do you find cool about that?

The fact that there's some overarching they with some nefarious, I don't know, for nefarious reasons wants to trick us into all believing that this fundamental truth is real. I had a dream and I woke up and I typed it out for a horror story idea. And it was that concept. It was, um, it was like in the future. And for some reason, like there were

still people alive who remembered back when whatever Australia existed, um, the ocean had life in it. Uh, there, whatever it is, right? This idea that, I don't know, there's some, for some nefarious reason, this giant truth is a lie and everyone is, yeah. I'm the only person who has a secret knowledge. It's kind of agnostic. Yeah. Yeah. Whatever. It's good. Yeah. All right. That's good. We've done this one before, but I love it so much. Probably superpowers. Best, worst superpowers. I mean, we've already done these, but I thought of one the other day,

you can detect wifi when you're in 10, a 10 meter range of it. You can just tell it there's wifi there. You can see a bar over people's head based on how much poop is they have in there. That's really good. Did you just think of that one or is that what you've been going on? And again, for me, the way to make these funny is you are being interviewed for the justice league and these are the things you're saying. I like the idea of being Magneto, but with stuff that's not super useful, right?

Like you can control only this thing, but it's like, I don't know, like matchsticks, leaves. That's neat. So you can make them. Yeah. I can't like get a bunch of them together, but I can like make one Yeah, whip around in the air. It's just sycamore leaves though, right? Yeah, just sycamore leaves. So we'd have to be somewhere with a lot of sycamore trees.

Okay, but even then, what good is that? Like think about it, some guy's driving, right? Uh-huh. Make it go over his face. Sycamore leaves pretty big and could probably cover his face and crash his car. But I mean he's driving so the windows wouldn't be down. Can you make the windows go down? No, I can't make windows. But if he's in a convertible or at a stop sign a window's cracked, I mean I could take one and get it in there.

What if he's on, I guess if he's on a bike. Right, yeah. If he's on a bike you could use Sycamore leaves to blind him. Why are we trying to blind bicyclists? You know, like if they're getting away from a heist. Oh, okay. Yeah. All right, well, we'll contact you if something comes up.

No, my favorite one still remains the one about, you can talk to one fish in particular, but he doesn't like you. What was the one we thought of when we were on that boat that time that you can raise everything artificial You can raise man-made objects from the bottom of one particular lake like ten seconds Yeah, which would be kind of cool for a minute And one of my favorite is still from Michael Gormley

Who I asked him he thought of this on the spot so props to him It's like and I've told you this one But you can fly but only as fast as you can run and it wears you out the same yes and no higher right and he say no higher than you're standing I remember that he did say this one where he said you've got you can jump super high but you have regular strength you break your legs if you land this is a really dumb one but I always bring it up you can you can teleport to the moon but you can't teleport back. So you can disappear on the moon. You die there immediately, but that'd be neat.

All right, let's, you think if, I'm gonna ask ChatGBT. ChatGBT, we did this forever ago. I don't know if it was on air, but ChatGBT has some really, really good ones. Give me a list of bad, oh, hang on. You can speak and understand any foreign language while you're pooping That's to be actually actually be in the process give me a list of the best worst superpowers

Let's see if it even understands that Here you go You can see exactly five seconds into the future Not that's pretty good. Nice. Yeah. But what are you going to do about it? See what I mean? Good for car accidents and stuff. I guess for you to focus on like right now, let's see what's going to happen in five seconds.

Yeah, I don't know. Would you just walk around seeing five seconds ahead of everybody else that it's suck. You'd be so it's such a bad conversation partner. Yeah, yeah, that would. You can hover But stairs curbs and even speed bumps are still a problem So you can only hover like two inches above the ground. Oh, I see the ability to fly but only two inches off the ground

super strength, but only when lifting spoons Oh Teleportation but you arrive completely soaked That's really good pretty good pretty good power though I like the one you might have made this one up you can teleport But what really happens is your brain just turns off and then you walk wherever it was So like so like I I'm gonna focus on London, right? Yeah, and what to me it seems like I'm here and now oh, there's Big Ben But what actually happens is I just kind of like sleepwalk and it takes me just as long and I'm just as tired

I just try it like slowly trounced all the way to London from here Yeah, we had this other one where you can you can resurrect someone from the dead But only while you're doing something really embarrassing Resurrect someone from the dead but only while you're doing something really embarrassing But when they come up with the dead no one remembers that they died But everyone remembers the really embarrassing thing you just did I think yeah, you had to go to the funeral home do the very very embarrassing inappropriate thing and then everyone forgot Would they be confused as to why they're in a funeral home? No, no, that all makes sense.

But my thought was even if like, you know, you see a car accident and you get out, you've got this. Everyone just remembers you on the side of the road doing the really inappropriate, embarrassing thing. You have saved this person, but no one. Yeah, that's good. Oh Look at this. This is that's funny it guess what we said talking to animals, but they're all jerks. Yeah, okay their jerks That's different Super speed, but you can't stop running

I've seen super speed but only with your eyes closed and you're not stronger right so you can go super speed But if you hit anything with your eyes closed she'll die laser vision, but only when you blink Okay, the ability to phase through walls, but only when you're completely naked Yeah, that'd be similar so that would be similar like you okay You see some of them just died and so you have to take all your clothes off and do star jumps Let's say and that person didn't end up dying and no one knows why you would do that so inappropriate It's just they just remember you defecated in public naked on the side of the road in a McDonald's bag. Why? Why did you do that? I had to save them. They they weren't even hurt. Yeah, but it was because of me. Yeah, well

Yeah, but it was because of me. Yeah, well. Oh, man. The ability to read minds, but only when someone is reciting the alphabet. That's stupid. Wait, like you can read? Your telepathy works. Telepathy works only if your target is actively going A, B, C. Okay. Okay, that's...

The power to control fire But only candle flames It's not bad as far as the best worst. Yeah again, you're in the Justice League's office I still think the teleportation but you're wet. That's that's really good the money that would say that's an actual superpower give Give me ten more and make them funnier Give me 10 more and make them funnier. Here are 10 more super strength, but only in your left pinky. That's stupid time travel, but only to the same Tuesday in 1997. Yeah. Yeah, flight, but at a walking pace. Yeah. So not just as fast as you can run, but like, but I think an important part is it wears you out just the same. That's wonderful. Super intelligence, but only about one really obscure topic. Isn't that every PhD?

Did you ever watch that Amazon series of the boys? I'm not recommending it, it was terrible. It's grotesque. It had the best premise. The premise was they're the Justice League, but they're just really awful, broken, bad people who are narcissists and terrible, but they're still this public persona that they're really good.

And so it's behind the scenes. It's a great premise, but I couldn't watch it because it was so degenerate. This one's good. X-ray vision, but only through spoons. Imagine trying to explain that to somebody. I mean, they'd be impressed, but it's so weird and totally unhelpful.

I'm still thinking about the Justice League. Like, what if some guy ties me up and puts spoons over my eyes so I can't see? And then they've got a map that shows where the launch sites are. I mean, come on. I'm your man. I am your man. This one's good. The ability to talk with the dead, but they only want to talk about reality TV.

The ability to make any object disappear, but only for 0.4 seconds. but only for.4 seconds. Eh. Eh. Oh, yeah. This is fun. Here's a... Yeah, I'll get you. I was just gonna talk about this cigar, and I was gonna ask if you remembered that time that I smoked the second half of the George Farmer cigar? Yeah. Yeah.

What happened? I mean, I... No, it was exactly... So, George Farmer, wonderful fellow, Candace Owen's husband. I mean, I'm sure he appreciates being known for other things, but he loves his wife, so I exactly. It's a George Farmer, wonderful fellow, Candice Owens husband. I mean, I'm sure he appreciates being known for other things, but he loves his wife. So I'm sure he's OK with it. Him and I were having a cigar once. I don't think he'd mind me saying this. So he's like, do you like that?

Do you like that stick? Yes. Beautiful. It's eight hundred dollars. Freaking hell. It was a good scar. It was amazing. But then what happened? Why was it half smoked or something? Yeah, you didn't finish it or whatever. And he said, there was a bit left You want to smoke the rest of the cigar and you said it was $800 cigar. I said, yeah, that's right

I don't know if you know but I smoked a Cuban I gave you my two cheapest cigars Thank you because I know you wouldn't appreciate a nice. No, I won't and I'm kind of like I kind of have some pride in that Actually, I like that. Yeah, like here's the deal. I can tell with all things, I feel like, there's a difference between a $10 bottle of bourbon and a $40 bottle of bourbon. I think there's a whole lot of difference between a $40 bottle of bourbon and an $800 bottle of bourbon. And if there is a difference that you can tell,

it's not that dollar amount difference, right? Right, yeah, it's like diminishing returns for sure. I have a bottle of Blanton's at the house, right? Super fancy. I drank that Blanton's at the house. Yeah, right super super fancy I drank that Blanton's years ago. I just keep dumping more regular like yeah, whatever bottom shelf bourbon I buy in that one. Come over. It looks great. I'm impressed. They don't know the difference. I don't lie about it. That's something speaking about a maturing and my

Like I don't know sins as I get older, I've learned that I struggle so much with embellishment of everything. My wife does too. But my wife, she's like you in that regard too. When she tells stories, it's like a Hollywood script. And I remember when I met her, I'm like, wow, this girl has some amazing stories. Well, now that I've lived with her for like 19 years, she tells stories. And in my head head I'm like

that just didn't happen that way. Or maybe she's just really good at, maybe she's just beautiful and interprets things in a more exciting way. I don't think it's ever intentional. Like it's not for her. And I'll realize after the fact, because I mean super cognizant of this is what's, this is, it's really good, but it's really frustrated about getting older. And once again, I've been working with the spiritual director for like 10 years, it's been so good for me, right, for my formation as a man. But the older I get, the more I'm like, the sins I'm struggling with, as I overcome sort of these long, habituated, mortal sin. And now all my sins are just like even lamer than they used to be, right? All my sins are like, ah, really, I think I told that story too well and I changed some topics.

And so I feel like I'm lying or like I was talking, I had a long conversation with my spiritual director about my like lack of gratefulness. Like, I don't know, my sins are even lamer than my old lame sins. They do sound lamer. Right. It does sound lamer than I robbed a bank. Not that you did that, I don't think. But there's stuff at the root of those little sins. Oh, totally. When the Lord heals them, like this beautiful Liberty comes. No, it's good and virtuous.

I'm not saying I wish that I were out sinning better. So I'd have more impressive confessions. But I'm gonna keep going down this road, even though I know you're gonna keep disagreeing with me. But it's like, if I confess the sin of ingratitude, and if I could become a grateful person, more grateful than I currently am, everyone around me's life would improve. Sure.

You know, my wife and children would know how much I love them, and I would be a joy to be around. So I think, you know, even though it does sound maybe less impressive, it really is the meat and potatoes. Here's another question. Did you have any childhood fears? Saw a ghost once did you yeah, I need that story right now I mean, it's not that impressive but I make it as stinkly remember make it impressive good a confession. Uh,

So there I was great pyramid of geese now I was I was in my bedroom and I was a little kid. I was probably eight or nine and I was looking at the guy just couldn't sleep. I was looking at the corner of the room I was wide awake. I swear I was in my bedroom and I was a little kid, I was probably eight or nine, and I was looking at the guy, I just couldn't sleep, and I was looking at the corner of the room, I was wide awake, I swear I was wide awake, and it got the corner, it was dark in my room obviously, but it got darker and darker and darker, and then this shape appeared that was roughly human shaped,

and it was the same color as glow in the dark toys, you know, that like kind of greenish pale green color, not when they're glowing in the dark, but the color that when you just hold glow in the dark toys, you know, that like greenish pale green color, right? Not when they're going in the dark, but the color that when you just hold them in the light, right? And it was there and it was looking at me and it was short. It was not man sized. It was boy sized. And there were, the eyes were really dark and the mouth was really dark and it just started opening its mouth and making this noise and I ran out of the room and screamed and just my parents. I remember like it was yesterday, scared me to death. I sleepwalked when I was a kid. I was a sleepwalker. I still sleepwalk sometimes.

In terms of big fears, on Christmas Eve 1994, my house was broken into. We were gone at church or something. My house was broken into. were we were gone At church or something. My house was broken into they ripped through all the Christmas presents under the tree. Oh, awful I remember walking in there with my parents and my Charlotte's web VHS tape was one of the presents I was gonna get for Christmas that year and it was right there My parents let me watch it too because I wasn't like scared then but I've always been worried about home invasion ever since. Yeah, you feel so violated, right? Like your inner sanctum is desecrated. They never found the guys like, but it's just weird that these randos were walking around my house. And I remember I as a kid, I didn't know what allergic meant. So when the doctor would say,

are you allergic? I thought allergic meant afraid of. So when the doctor would say, are you allergic to anything? I'd be like, yeah, those big like, um, there's like furry moths with the eyes on the wings. Yeah, that's what I'm allergic to. Cause they terrified me. Uh, yeah, I didn't, uh, I didn't have like, like right now, I might've mentioned this last time I was on here. Did I talk about the rats? I talk about my rat house last time I was on here. No. Oh my gosh. So while we were building our house, we lived in, oh yeah, you did. I did talk about it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You talked about sitting up at night and shooting it. And I realized I really don't like rats. Yeah. Like I have a real like you should. That's an appropriate mice. I don't feel that way. Bats. I don't feel

that way. Spiders, snakes, all that. I can deal with that. I often think that if squirrels had tails like rats, we would absolutely detest them. Yeah, they're kind of fluffy though. Tail. And they don't have the long pointy face. That's true. I think that's a good one. With the nose. Yeah. The little nasty, nasty rat nose. My wife hates snakes more than anything in the world. They don't bother me. I give pep talks to snakes. I'll catch snakes in the chicken coop every now and then eating the eggs. And I catch them and I take them out and I explain to them that they can't come back. And if they do, I'm gonna have to kill them. Please don't make me do that. And then a few days later, there's a snake,

I assume it's the same one, I cut its head off and I cut it down the middle and I throw it into the chicken coop and the chickens pick out all of its insides and I think it's ironic. We have chickens, you know we have chickens? Yeah, yeah, people told me about him this morning. He's a good boy. He told me about one of yours that was killed

and drug into the pool and all this stuff Maybe he's just really good at telling it drowned. Yeah Yeah, I love I love chickens. I love roosters I understand why nights like in the Middle Ages would have like like a rooster was one of the things you would see along with Like there were lions and serpent but some of them had roosters and now that I've grown up around roosters I want to be more like a rooster. They have the best lives. I could see myself getting,

you know how people as they get older, they start like, they have little collections? Yeah, old women, they have these collections of dolls or like frog, porcelain frogs. I could see myself, I don't wanna do this, but I could see myself like having like a rooster collection of like little porcelain roosters and like photo. I like roosters. I had a rooster collection of like little porcelain roosters and like photo. I like roosters.

I had a rooster named Death Machine 3000 and he was the best rooster ever. He was a big barred Plymouth Rock, if anybody knows anything about chickens. And he was great with everyone except for my dad. He despised my father. He would come across the yard to fight my father. Every time.

How funny. Like I have no idea why, no matter what he was wearing, he would just like see was here and just like something wrong. Just like run at it and jump on him? He died, I think he died fighting a coyote. We found a bunch of blood and hair being drugged. But you know, that's why roosters are so cool. They're good for two things.

Good for keeping eggs fertilized, right? And they're good for heroic last ditch self-sacrifice official battles against insurmountable odds and they look Regal yes, manly. Yeah, they're beautiful. Yeah, the masculine beauty about them and the big comb and they just I like their attitudes I think they're neat All right, anything else It's been a great episode. I Don't know. I like the I liked the, I liked walking in totally unprepared and then just going down all the-

It's nice, I gotta say, I really actually like this because, you know, some interviews you have and you go in with an agenda. Like, oh, here's the guy who knows about this, so this is what we need to talk about. Johnnie doesn't know about anything. Well, I didn't mean that, but I meant, it's nice just to have a conversation.

It's nice to have a conversation that feels like, oh, for us, right? I don't care if they're watching That's nice I'm interested to see if they figure out like the guys watching figure out that all of this was AI generated using a Yeah, pretty sure Matt plugged into the AI algorithm not to admit that the Chinese What's the Chinese one with the whale on it? I don't know deep-seek something Yeah, this is fun. I'm excited to be here. I'm excited about spending the weekend in Florida. I want to tell you about Halo, which is the number one downloaded prayer app in the world. It's outstanding. Halo.com slash Matt Fradd. Sign up over there right now and you will get the first three months for free.

That's like a lot of time. You can decide whether it's useful to you or not, whether it's helpful. If you don't like it, you can always quit. Hallow.com slash Matt Fradd. I use it, my family uses it. It's fantastic. There are over 10,000 audio guided prayers, meditations, and music including My Lo-Fi. Hallow has been downloaded over 15 million times in 150 different countries. It helps you pray, helps you meditate, helps you sleep better. It helps you build a daily routine and a habit of prayer. There's honestly so much excellent stuff on this app that it's difficult to get through it all. Just go check it out. Hello.com slash Matt Fradd. The link is in the description below. It even has an entire section for kids. So if you're a parent, you could play little Bible stories for them

at night. It'll help them pray. Fantastic. Hello.com slash Matt Fradd. All right. So what we're going to do is take questions from our local supporters. If the question that doesn't interest you, you don't have to go on. Where did the questions come from? Local supporters. They haven't watched it. I just said question. They know who you are, right? Cause they watch the show. So I said questions for John Henry, make them short, sassy, short and sassy. So you can answer these as long or short as you wish. I feel like you do. I know this is a shorter segment, so I won't just ramble, but that's what I like to do. I feel like, I feel personally attacked by you every time that I do one of these things because I, everything, every time I've ever been on the show or whatever, I feel like there's always like,

here's a stupid picture of John Henry, everybody. The caption that hurts his feelings emotionally, thinks about in the shower for the next 10 years wins. Can I tell you the one? Can I tell you the only one that hurt? But I didn't say that. No, I'm not being tongue in cheek. I'm not actually offended by any of this.

But you remember that when you posted the Jordan Peterson picture of being Jordan Peterson? Do you want me to tell take the only caption that like, First of all, maybe explain, cause people might be coming into this cold. Explain what you thought about that photo, what you said. And then, Uh, there was a really great picture of me and Jordan Peterson where angles, a lot of other stuff. I was beat red and my head looked very large. And you were smiling and Jordan I was so happy and Jordan Peterson looks like this small man behind

this giant oaf of me who does not look happy to be in the picture he's not smiling at all I'm beat-faced and you posted it and said best caption wins how was that okay but before this though you said you looked like a wish foundation kid like so I I Looked like someone who was meeting their like celebrity hero because they felt an obligation to do it because I'm this but alright What did they say? What was the best only one that hurt? They've been like two or three comments ever with anything I've ever done online The first one has come up multiple times as years ago when somebody wrote under this word,

I have to cover say, it was a good one too. It was like a raising kids in Sodom. I was like, great, I'm gonna, some good wisdom from working with young people for years. One person, a lot of really, a lot of great comments. But then one of them just wrote, Spam looks like he's one ham sandwich away from a heart attack.

So I remember that one, that one stinks. like he's one ham sandwich away from heart attack. I remember that one. No, it's thanks. Uh, I have high school kids who will bring it. It will say that in class. Cause I've mentioned that before talking about social media and I'll say, I said a ham sandwich and lunch today, Mr. Span. Like, it's not funny.

That's not funny. You picture a Scarpeo, you don't get that. But, uh, the only one that got me from that one. Cause I did, I looked like a much larger fellow Than Jordan Peters in which I am but was looks like jelly roll got his face tattoos removed That one that one gets me that one got me pretty good. Oh, thanks for that. Well anyway, Francesco says can vegans be saved Did I I didn't tell the story on air. I told the story to you earlier. So I was, I was over at a friend's house, uh,

for like a birthday party or something, uh, for my little kid, my kids in his class. He wasn't a friend. He's the, the kids, friends with my kid. And I'm sitting in their living room and the guy said, um, he mentioned to me, it just came up that he was vegan. And like in my little community, I'm known, I do all the outdoor stuff. I'm known as the guy. I can go and I hunt and I whatever. And he says, he mentioned that they were vegan

and then he stopped and there was like a solid two second pause of him looking at me and he said, but I don't care about animals or anything. It's just health reasons. And I was like, dude, it's cool. You can care about animals. You're allowed to care about animals. Yeah, vegans can be saved.

I think it's lame and unhealthy, but yeah, you can go about animals. You're allowed to care about animals. Yeah, vegans can be saved I think it's layman unhealthy, but yeah, you can be good heaven grace Graceful Catholic is her handle says thoughts on movies with extended sex jokes Not scenes like Monty Python and the Holy Grail and Rocky Horror Picture Show. I've never seen the latter Obviously, I've heard of it. I like of transvestite stuff and rock and roll pictures. I watched it once in high school. I think it has to do with who you're watching it with. I think about, when I think about language as opposed to visual stuff, I mean,

some people maybe that's a struggle. I feel like women struggle more with written word, erotic novels or things, but there's a lot of movies that I'd watch with you that would have sex jokes and things like that that I would never watch with my 12 year old son. I never watched with my wife. Like what? Like-

Even like Key and Peele skits. Yes, yeah, yeah. Something like that. Like the early 2000s movies that were just kind of raunchy, raunchy humor and stuff. Yeah, like Happy Gilmore probably has stuff. I will go out of my way to avoid a movie that has nudity in it.

Yeah. I will not go out of my way to avoid a comedy that has some raunchy jokes in it, in the right company. I talk about language a lot with the kids at school. And I said, like language is not inherently evil. Some things can be, you can talk about things that are inherently evil. But like if I say F you grandma to my grandmother, that's bad. I shouldn't say that. There's a lot of horrible things I could say to my grandmother that are as bad or worse than FU that don't involve certain words or whatever. So I don't know, I think context, but more importantly,

probably company matters with raunchy humor. Yeah, Zachary Heron says, have you learned how to use the dishwasher yet? No, no. I've never washed a load of dishes at my house before. But would you know how to use it? I don't know how to use it. Mark L.

Or the washing machine. Mark L. says. Or the air fryer. Or the oven, but I can use the stove top. Wait, I'm not done. I'm trying to think of other stuff. Yeah, I can use everything else. Mark L. says, would you rather be able to slam dunk or break dance?

I guess that's like a context thing. Slam dunk, for sure. That's much more masculine. Who's the best John Henry? The steel driving man, the Anglican turncoat, the Red Sox manager, my uncle, who it is unlikely you've ever met or yourself. Well, I tell you, who's not the best John Henry,

that's John Henry Weston. The steel driving man. You looked at me strange. Do you ever? Oh, I just, I don't want to be publicly slandering people. Personally, I literally know him from one Twitter thing. One comment I saw that was really like strange and rad tread a long time ago. So, um, fun fact about the steel driving man.

Um, that story is about me. And they got some details off. But yeah, I prefer the steel driving man. I grew up on those stories before I even knew about Newman or any of those guys. It was John Henry, the ex slave who beat the steam drill through the mountain, who I thought was such a stone cold badass. So Kinsey says thoughts on little hats for taxiderm and animals It's a great question Yeah, depending on the animal 100% like my world my got my daughter's taxiderm squirrel Yeah, a little hat or beer can or the whatever. I think that's hilarious

My daughter right now wants to taxidermy a raccoon and so a little Pat's Place Pat's Place is named my dad's bar Little Pat's Place shirt on him and give him a little beer and all that. I think it's really funny with Lil' Aaron. Now does she want to do the taxidermy job? No. Yeah, she wants to get one done and then decorate. I like that. Yeah.

My son's got a taxidermy kit, though. He just bought a big taxidermy school kit. Wow. How cool. Aaron says, St. John Henry Newman is my confirmation saint. Seeing that he's your namesake, do you have any devotion to him? So he's not my namesake, because my parents weren't super into the whole Catholic thing at all, right? My mom's not Catholic, my dad's not nominally so. They had no idea I was named after

my dad and my grandfather. I'm the 16th John Spann in a row, and with some Henrys peppered throughout there too. So, but I have gotten a devotion to John Henry Newman since I came into the church. I kind of view him and St. Ignatius of Loyola as my de facto confirmation saints because I have no idea who my real confirmation saint was. I need to go look it up. Joe Ward says, any advice for becoming a good high school theology teacher?

Yeah, you're probably gonna get fired. Like I say, I mean that seriously, depending on where you work. That's the advice? Yeah, the advice is just expect you're going to get fired. No, I, uh, I think that kids, boys in particular want nothing more than, than, than truth, hard punching them right in the face. And I think to say the things and say the words and I think to do it well, um, you're probably going to have to move schools a couple of

I mean, that's just my personal experience. I mean, maybe that's not everybody. Maybe you've got a super rock solid school, but I think you need to say the words and I think you need to do all this stuff. I think one of the biggest problems we have with young men, we were talking about this this morning is mom and dad are uncomfortable talking about important things with their kids or even words. They don't like the word masturbation, right? They don't like the word, um, pornography. They don't like certain words, so they don't talk about certain things with their sons or their kids, and then they go and those kids learn about it in the most disordered way possible. And so I think if, like, as a theology teacher, as a high school theology teacher, I don't want to be the person

who introduces these concepts to kids, but if mom and dad aren't going to do it, I'd rather them hear it from me than somewhere else. And at a lot of schools, that's going to be cause a lot of problems. And I mean, be prudent, right? You have to take care of your family first and foremost. So I mean, I'm sure there's a there's an argument for stay in line with whatever the archdiocese or your principles tells you to even if you don't agree with it and moderate. But in terms of being a really, really good one, which I think I don't think I'm a really, really good one, but I think I'm a pretty good one. I'm getting better. I think you have to get into all the stuff and not pull punches and get a really good

female you can bring into your class sometimes to talk to the girls while you talk to the boys. Nice. Cody Schoenle says African mounts are cool and all. I know that guy. He's the most recent guy. Really? He, so he came in on the wait list.

Oh, that's great. Is this camera on me? Cody, we've been emailing back and forth. I'm sorry. The WhatsApp thing isn't working. He's going with us to Africa this year. Nice. Yeah. I can't wait to meet you't working. He's going with us to Africa this year. Nice. Yeah. I can't wait to meet you, Cody.

He says African- He just converted. Sorry, he just came into the church. Awesome. I got an email from him the other day. He don't seem to care about this, but I do. I'm super excited. He said, no, I thought it.

When are you guys coming to Colorado for an elk? Elk is best for keto, by the way. Wait, this is Cody? Yeah. So Colorado, I think think is the only state in the country that offers over the counter elk tags. So if Cody's got a good spot, I can be there beginning of next Elk season. Seriously, seriously. It's prohibitively expensive to hunt elk with an outfitter. But yeah, let's go Cody. Jacob C says, I don't know if this

is true or not. He, meaning you struggles with scrupulosity, right? How's that going? And what advice might he have for those who struggle with it as well? I used to really struggle with scrupulosity. I think it's talked about this on the show. I had a priest who told me to get out of the confessional because he wasn't going to absolve me of my sins because I was just there the day before. And none of those things were more mortal to chill out a little bit. Yeah. I don't, I don't know. I think it's probably the answer. I don't know why. I think it's just years of having to reiterate to myself

regularly. Like that is not like scrupulosity is a sin because scrupulosity is a lack of trust in the mercy of God. Right. So there's another sin. Do you disagree? Do you disagree? Right. Well, I don't know. I mean, I like to make the distinction between a tender conscience, which we all ought to have, and scrupulosity, which we ought to renounce in the name of Jesus Christ, you know?

Because I agree, yeah. I think it's like, it's a place where we don't feel safe in the Father's love. And so we're trying to make sure we're justified and to know that we're justified so that we can feel safe. I think I just struggle with God the Father in His mercy. I understand His justice a lot more than His mercy. There's a whole lot of prayer.

Something that I pray every morning after talking to my spiritual director, big shout out Father Bruce around, I say, Lord, I love you. Help me to love you. Right? I pray for, I pray for the theological virtues, faith, faith, hope and charity. Right? And I go through those and it's part of hope. Right? I have to remind myself that mercy is tied into hope. And yeah, it's not, it's not perfect. I think so much of my spiritual growth is just years and years and years of faking it to make it and praying for stuff that I didn't feel like I had. Yeah, check out the book, I Believe in Love.

That's the book I point to everybody who says they're struggling with scrupulosity. Patrick says, John Henry, do you think you're as manly as Matt says you are? Do I say you're manly? I think so much of my masculinity, I'm constantly having to figure out if it's real. Right? I think we've talked about this. When I was seven years old, I was on a playground in America's Georgia. And I remember like having this moment of like, I have to like, I have to man up, I

have to be cool, I have to be different. Right? I'm not good enough right now. And that started years of piling ideas on what it meant to be a man, a lot of which were super wrong, one on top of the other. And I think I've been spending the last two decades of my life sort of digging through and saying,

I wanna keep this, this is good, this is bad, this is disordered, this is machismo, Andrew Tate BS, let me throw this crap out. So I think from like the outside, I think I'm viewed as hyper masculine by a lot of people, but internally in terms of real Christian masculinity, right, like Jesus Christ, like St. Joseph, right? I got a long, long way to go, really long way to go.

I'm really good at faking that, right? Chest beating masculinity and doing masculine things I'm good at. But in terms of like true masculinity of the heart, I got a lot to grow there. Thanks. Final question comes from Christian P. What is your preferred method for skinning a cow? Also, do you have any encouragement for Catholics in small rural aging parishes? Oh, that last one's tough. I mean, the cow thing's easy, right? You put it on one side, it's like taking off a coat, and then you toss it over to the side, and then you roll it back on the already flayed out skin, and then you do the other side. It really helps to have a forklift.

If it's a little smaller, like a pig, right, lift it up first. A cow, you got to do like a buffalo or an elk on the ground, right? Gambrels make it super easy, but you can't get a cow up on a gambrel, but you can with forklift. In regards to the small rural, yeah, I don't know, man. That's hard, right? Cause a lot of people want to live in a rural setting, but you, I've done this before. Like we lived in the mountains of North Georgia up in Cleveland, Cleveland, and also a tiger. Did you live in Covres up there? Yeah, for about six months while Cameron was recovering from a hospital stuff. What we have done, and I feel like we just kind of won the lottery here, is we were able

to finagle ourselves around and by a few hundred acres with other people. So my community is primarily the people who are within a half mile, quarter mile of a house in the middle of nowhere on a mountain compound in the mountains, right? So that's been easy for me because we really fled with others into the wilderness. We weren't sort of our family unit in the wilderness

trying to break into a community and then realizing everybody here is 70 years old and not on fire. It's tough. I don't know. I don't know if I've. More and more I've been just thinking to myself, it's really important. Hey, it's to have a beautiful liturgy. We all desire that. We deserve that. Maybe we don't deserve that. Maybe we deserve hell. I'm not sure. But you know, like if you go to Holy mass once a week and well maybe you go to daily mass a couple of times, you know, like if you go to Holy Mass once a week, or maybe you go to daily Mass

a couple of times, you know, when it's all said and done, maybe you're spending four or five hours at Weaker Church. There's so much more of life where you can, you know, light candles in your home and celebrate something. Yeah, but I think especially if you have young children, what you, you don't want to be alone, right? You want to be a part of a community. I think you need that community. If just totally practical reasons, right?

So your kids say, your kids realize we're not the only ones. We're not the weird ones who aren't getting on the yellow bus and going to the indoctrination center every morning. We're not the only ones who believe this thing, right? And it's, it's really hard. I mean, we were talking about before we found our little community of St. John Bosco,

we were talking about moving to Beloit, Kansas, big shout out to John the Baptist School over there. We were talking about moving to Lander, Wyoming. We were looking at a lot of places to just get out so we could become a part of something. I don't, I mean, it can be done obviously, but I really don't recommend trying to be an island where your family and your family alone is

trying to battle this. You're probably strong enough to do that. Your kids are not because they want affection and attention and love because they're human beings and if the only people that are around who actually believe in things that are true and good and beautiful are you and mom and dad, I can absolutely see why that could be a problem for the kids. Yeah, I guess I have this idyllic view of, if your kids are really young

and you move out to some rural area and you're creating a beautiful culture within your family, that maybe you could survive on that, or maybe the kids wouldn't know any different. I think you can. You ever see Captain Fantastic? I mean, I remember the Norm MacDonald joke. Have you seen that?

No. Oh my gosh, dude. It's so funny. In Captain Fantastic, they're not Christian, but they live out in the middle of nowhere by themselves and have their- Mr. Fantastic, sorry, here. Okay, I haven't seen it yet. But they get into some of that and then getting back into the real world.

I mean, at the end of the day, we're not called to be Amish, right? We're not called to build the gates and circle the wagons. I think community is really, really good, right? Sort of peer community, community of the same age with the same kids and everything. I agree that it's not necessary. I think lots of saints, lots of people have come from a real isolation.

Yeah. But I think it's really good, and I think it's really helpful, especially as kids get older. Someone wrote a book, and I forget their name, but they went out, started the farm life thing, and then went, this was a terrible mistake, and they went back into town and I'm much happier. I like that story, because it just feels,

it makes me feel better. Like I'm, when I move, I mean, this is very different, right? But we moved from this run downtown Steubenville, which we love the community, you know, big part of me wishes we could still live there, but we can't for different reasons. But it was impossible to get anyone to do anything if you needed work on your very, very old house

that was falling apart and I don't have those kind of skills. Or if you just needed something done. Even like, let's say there's a pipe bursts. Just trying to find someone to come out is very hard because it's a very run-down town. Whereas here, man, it's just been nice to have like this 10 different companies that are all vying for our business. That's been nice. Nice to live among humans. No, it's convenient. But from a community standpoint, I just, I don't know. I feel like,

and maybe there's a weakness on my part, I need other people. I need other, I think the rugged American individualist idea is a Protestant heresy. I really do. I think it springs from Protestantism and we're not, like Yellowstone, like the Duntons on Yellowstone, right? It's this idea of me and mine and I can what? All by myself.

I think that's, I think that springs from Protestantism and I think it's disorders. Interesting. Sorry, go ahead. I feel bad because I don't really miss, I mean, maybe it's just because I've been so busy, but I don't have many friends here. I got one guy who I like, but I don't feel a need for it. But I think maybe I should. I don't know. Because for so long, I was talking about the importance of community.

I like my little family and our little house and our little life. But I suppose maybe a time will come when I'm like, okay, I need to journey with a few men. But I don't think I was necessarily disordered. I think that's kind of cool. But I think that, yeah, male intimacy and male community. And I mean, obviously obviously with kids and female community and all that too, but I think it's super important.

I think we need, cause none of us are. Do you have fellows that you meet with weekly or that you, is it something you do kind of at a strategic every Tuesday night with this thing? No, I probably ought to, that'd be great. I get invited to men's groups and stuff fairly regularly, but it's just, it's life. I mean, my life is primarily 100%, hundred percent right ordered around my wife and my kids

I can't wait to get home and hang out with them and be with them But I'm part of this bigger community where I can I got guys I can call I got people who? Can you know who had my back of the I go out for drinks with guys occasionally and do that whole piece I just I like the I Like the idea that I'm the, I like the idea that I'm not, that I'm not totally alone. I used to want to, I used to want to be totally alone. It used to be like, if you told me I could just have a cabin

on the side of a mountain in Montana, just me and my kid, I'd be all about it. But the older I get, there's a weakness in my, I don't know, but I feel like I need the, I need the support. I need the village. Yeah. Yeah, I think if someone invited me to a men's group, you couldn't pay me enough money to go. I don if someone invited me to a men's group, you couldn't pay me enough money to go.

I don't want to go to a men's group either. But if you said, if someone came to you and went, hey, me and my buddy John, who you've met, who's really cool, we're just going to get together for just a meal. I'd like that. I think that sounds more appealing to me. I like the once or twice a year

when you and I go turkey hunting. I love that. When it's not turkey hunting season and we don't bring guns and we just hang out in my cabin. Yeah. There's zero turkeys involved. involved. That kind of fills my cup enough. I want to go back. I can't wait to go back to Georgia. I'll have to come up and visit you just to go tubing with Peter. Tubing is the best.

Tubing is so fun. We've got a great river. We can literally put it on my property and just go. You can go all the way. Oh, really? Yeah, you can go something like 90 river miles till you get to Lake Alatuna. Come on. There's only one big strainer that'll kill you. So you gotta be careful around that one.

I almost killed Jeff. I literally made a split-second decision to put my son and my life in danger to get over there and save my dog who went up under this giant log pile. We got him out. Everything was fine Yeah We might get a dog our problem is that we travel like we're going to Austria for a couple months It's a pain in the butt going anywhere with the dogs Yeah, I like the idea of a dog. I

Like Those big was that dog member that movie Beethoven. Yeah, St. Bernard. Yeah I mean, I like the idea of them that maybe I wouldn't like having one curl up with one Yeah, and just I want a great Pyrenees, but I'm worried it'll kill the neighbors dogs I want one for the goats because I have to put the goats every period. I noticed was that giant white Shepherd dogs the guard What's that? Giant white shepherd dogs. They guard. They're not for shepherding. They're livestock guardian dogs, rather. What does a great Pyrenees look like?

I just gave you a perfect description. Wow! See? It's a big white dog. Oh my gosh. They're so beautiful. But they're outside. You take them as puppies and you just leave them with your sheep or your goats. And they think that they're part of the herd They are so beautiful. They kill bad critters when they come around and mess with them and they just keep them outside Yeah, they're outside all the time. They sleep out there wherever the animals sleep I think we're getting a donkey instead though. Donkey. Angie really wants a donkey for a lifestyle guardian What do they do beat the hell out of all the critters in the woods. Donkeys are mean and real. Yes, but they're not agile and fast. They're strong and mean and defensive. Yeah. They,

they trample kind of, I can show you pictures right now. You can probably look it up. The donkeys with coyotes like in their jaws that they've thrown. Yes. Okay. This is, this is unlike other podcasts where we're going to put a cool picture on the screen for our viewers. You just have to look it up while we look it up. Donkey with a coyote in its mouth. Oh my. I'm telling you, isn't that cool? How on earth does it catch it?

They run up to it and trample it. I didn't realize they were fast. I think of a donkey, I think of Eeyore. I think of a slow animal. They're basically zebras. You remember the zebra? Yeah, do you remember when you asked me if it was okay for you to get on the dead body of the zebra? Yeah on in Minecraft. Yeah, so here's what happened. I shot a zebra on Minecraft and it's the first animal I ever killed Understand that I mean I'd killed a mouse before I was there for that too

I swatted flies before but this was the first animal I'd killed. And I remember like, oh my gosh, I was just in shock. I'm like, can I sit on it? It's a freaking horse mat. So yeah, and it's dead. So yeah. But why? Okay.

So yeah. Wow. Oh, I see. So they're as fast as zebras. I think they're pretty fast and strong. That's funny that I just have this cartoon idea of a donkey. I told you, I hate horses. I'm scared of horses.

Like I have a fear of horses. I'm not scared of donkeys because donkeys are super chill and laid back, but they'll, yeah, they'll mess you up. Wow. They don't tend to run away. When there's like loud noises that horses run from, donkeys tend to like square up and stare at it.

So why, and so your wife wants one for what other reason than it helps? They're cute. Yeah. She wants one cuz they're cute I want one because they're less maintenance than a dog. I won't love it. Like I love a dog Yeah, I love it like a goat which is to say there's not a lot of love Could you get a zebra to defend your animals? I would love maybe 200. I want a zebra so bad I think I think before I die. I'll have a couple of zebras, but would they serve the same purposes?

No, I don't know about zebra temperaments. I didn't grow up around a lot of zebras Lot more donkeys and zebras. No skin. They're buffalo. There's a guy with a buffalo farm not far from the unamericas Can you buy a kangaroo here? I don't know. There's a kangaroo preserve in Dawsonville I mean you can hunt the only place on earth where you can hunt kangaroos if you're not an Australian citizen is in Texas We should do that. Okay done Convince me Yeah, I really want to shoot a kangaroo then are we ever gonna get to go to Russia

Okay, so Russia this war in the Ukraine has been super inconvenient for me personally I'm gonna go ahead and be on record saying that I really wish they'd work something out because it's driven the price of a muskox Hunt way And these are the real world human costs that they don't they don't think about it now. I'm just it's obviously a tragedy I don't mean to make light but it's a Yeah, Russia used to make it so hunting a lot of the stuff that you could hunt in Canada and Greenland even northern Europe right in the rest of Europe, you could

go there to do it on the cheap. And ever since this, no one's traveling to Russia. So you can't go. The price of bear hunts, brown bear hunts, muskox, wolves, all these things have gone through the roof because you don't have Russia to do it on cheap. I don't think we can even travel to Russia without a visa at this point.

We're not allowed to travel over there? I mean, I have no desire to go to Russia. Really? Yeah, because they, I mean, all those guys keep getting arrested for random, random stuff. Yeah. I don't think I have any like pot gummies in my bag, but all of a sudden I'm worried about it. Well, I mean, I've had Father Jason Sharron here kind of defending Ukraine a couple of times. I don't know if I should be going either.

Oh, seriously. Yeah. I don't want to be traded for some arms dealer because I don't know there's the 22 round or something that I didn't realize was laying in the bottom of my suitcase. I really want to do the trans Siberian highway. That just sounds so great. I think you go through highway. That's what I meant. That's what I meant. I think you go through 12 time zones. That's awesome. That's insane. Great. We'll do that. Wouldn't that be fun? Yeah. We'll shoot the kangaroo and then I want to do the uh, we'll do the Trans-Siberian Highway. We'll call it, so after we do this pilgrimage, you know, to Namibia and wherever else, this will be like, it'll be called the introverts pilgrimage. We'll all show up, but then we all get our separate cabins and we don't talk to each other. On the train? Yeah. No one's allowed to talk, have fun.

Yeah. I would love to go to Russia. Russia is, I know this is not worth saying, but it's big. You look at a real size map, Europe is just this teeny little bit of land and then- It's like Canada, right? There's just nothing there.

There's nothing in the vast majority. But that's why I wanna go, I wanna go to Lake Baikal. That's something that's on my heart. Because of the story? Yeah, the story. I wanna go out to vast majority. But that's why I want to go. I want to go to Lake Baikal. That's something that I- Oh, because of the story? Yeah, the story. I want to go out in the middle of Lake Baikal and I want to jump in. Get a dry suit on and just swim around a little bit in Lake Baikal.

I think it's 50 miles from Alaska to Russia. Are you suggesting we sneak into Eastern Siberia? Swim. I mean, there's like two islands there that we can see one island from the other one. Like you can see Russia from the US. There's some remote island off the coast of Alaska and you can see.

Wild. Yeah, there's a big island in Northern Russia. I read about it. I was reading this, I like Arctic adventure stories, like real ones, like non-fiction. I forget what it was, it wasn't the terror. It was one of those ships that got stuck in the ice and the ship broke up.

These guys walked across the ice and they got to this island. It's like sort of the W. Waldorf, or something island. And it was covered in woolly mammoth tusks. These were like some of the first people to ever be there, right? I guess there were Inuits,

but like the first white people to be there. And they write about how there were tusks everywhere. Cause there were all these mammoths that were isolated on there like thousands of years before, but not tens of thousands, like thousands of years before. This was like the size of Delaware, one of the last places where there were woolly mammoths. Like while they were building the pyramids,

there were woolly mammoths in on this island. Anyway, and it's now some big park, but I want to go there. And yeah, I told you I paid, I bought some mammoth ivory, I have mammoth ivory at my house right now. Did you? Not like a whole tusk or anything, but like a little. That's legal, the bar? Yeah, I think so. I bought it in St. Augustine. Cool. Like five years ago. Thanks for being on the show. Yeah, man. It's a party. It was great.