Pints With Aquinas - Responding to Criticism (An update on the Matt Fradd Show)

Starting point is 00:00:00 Hey, how you going? This is just a bonus episode in which I get your feedback on some of the last few interviews I did on the Matt Fradd Show, get some of your criticism, which I will read, some of the things that you thought went well, what you'd like to see more of. I'm going to talk about what I'm learning through this whole process, talk about some of our upcoming guests.

Starting point is 00:00:21 It's going to blow you away who's coming on. I'm really excited about it. And, oh, yeah, just some exciting things going on. So, I hope you enjoy this. If you're one of my patrons, please be sure to let me know on patreon.com slash mattfradd. I'll throw up a post today. Cheers. First of all, thanks for listening and thank you for being a part of this. I can't tell you how much fun I have doing these episodes and I really hope that they are beneficial for the most part for people out there. I decided to do this about nine or ten months ago now, I guess, when my patrons sort of stepped up and agreed that they wanted to see something like the Matt Fradd

Starting point is 00:00:54 show happen and it's really been a growing experience for me. I've learned a lot. I think one of my, gee, one of the virtues I have, I guess, is that I can, if I get excited about an idea, I just go for it. And I do not let the great be the enemy of the good. But sometimes that's not the best thing because it would have been good perhaps if I had planned a little bit more in advance. Anyway, but that's just to say I am learning a lot. But I've been getting some great feedback from my patrons, patreon.com slash Matt Fradd, if you're interested. How was that for a soft sell? Who have written to me and have given me some feedback.

Starting point is 00:01:34 So, that's what I want to do. As I say, these are just coming out once a month. So, we record the whole episode, put it on YouTube, and then I have my people take out eight smaller clips and release them on Mondays and Fridays, because obviously a three-hour interview or a two-and-a-half-hour interview or whatever is a long thing to watch. And so, that's why we kind of take some of the gold out of those interviews and then release them after that. But if you're only consuming the Matt Fradd Show as a podcast, then you're only getting these once a month. So, all right, here's what I want to do. I want to begin with an awesome email I got over Patreon. I'm not going to say the man's name because I don't want to embarrass him or whatever, but he gave me some

Starting point is 00:02:15 great feedback. He said this, I'm going to quote. He says, I had an observation upon listening to your Father Gregory Pine interview and then your Annie Hickman interview back to back and had some feedback for you if you find it helpful. The former, that's with Gregory Pine, Father Gregory Pine, he says, was one of the best you have done and the latter, Annie Hickman, was unfortunately quite the opposite and not because of the subject matter, not, you know, because it didn't scandalize him, he's saying, or anything like that. He says, I hope this comes off as from someone that cares about your work and truly wishes the best for you. Okay. So, he begins with Father Gregory Pine. He says, you and Father Pine had an energy and focus to the conversation where it was incredibly engaging and every minute seemed well used. The Patreon questions were also incredibly well integrated. He was an amazing

Starting point is 00:03:05 guest, so knowledgeable and deep, but also very well organized and incredibly well spoken. That is very important. And I think sometimes long form interviews risk undervaluing that aspect and its relevance to the time people invest in listening. I'm just going to cut these kind of short because I don't want to read the whole thing to you and bore you. But he says, in regards to Eni Hickman, he says that interview was the polar opposite of that. This is his opinion. I'm sure some of you enjoyed the Hickman interview, but let me just say what he said first. He says, I thought the two of you were meandering and goofing off for so much of the interview that it was a bit dead for a lot of it. Other than discussing Enni's house dinners, it only came to life when he was posing a liberal point of view on something,

Starting point is 00:03:52 only to be expertly opposed and thus rhetorically demolished by what you had to say, which I happen to agree with every time. He's obviously a holier man than I in what he is doing for the kingdom. And I'm open to listening to people with his point of view. I in no way mean to criticize his intellect or motives. By the way, can we just pause and say what an amazing email this is? I think sometimes when we criticize people, we just kind of go right for the jugular. And this guy is just doing an expert job in being charitable and being nuanced, but also being frank. He says, he, that is any, charitable and being nuanced, but also being frank. He says, he, that is any, did not sound prepared to defend his opinions on anything. I thought he defaulted to emotional ambiguity. And he goes on. Anyway, here's how he sums it up. Anyway, take it for what it's worth. I hope you

Starting point is 00:04:37 are well and I remain grateful for what you do. And in awe of your faith and insights, I believe I'm just a bit younger than you and have slightly fewer children, but you are someone that I really look up to, which is just super nice. So, thank you very much for that email. So, let me just say a bit about the Pine interview and the Hickman interview. So, yeah, like, let me just say this. I think there's a benefit to long-form discussions and then there's like a downside. I think the benefit to long form discussions like we're having and like I set out to do immediately with the Matt Fradd Show is that they give people the opportunity to think through their positions, right, in real time and it gives them the opportunity to explain them in more than a soundbite, you know, like in a Twitter online world in which we live,

Starting point is 00:05:27 people throw out these one-liners and then you often wonder what they mean by them, or you don't kind of get much follow-up, or you'd like them to be a little more nuanced, but the internet doesn't often lend itself to nuance, right? As one of my previous guests said on Pints with Aquinas, humility rarely or never perhaps goes viral, you know? So, people are kind of very bombastic on social media and things like this. That's what's great about long-form discussions. That's why I love having them is because I can get your opinion on something, push back a little. Like, well, what do you say to someone who says this? You know, I just have that skeptical mind, I guess. So, that even when people on my side, if you want, are making a claim,

Starting point is 00:06:09 I tend to take the devil's advocate position, which might be super frustrating. And maybe I shouldn't do that so much. I don't know. That's just kind of how I'm wired, maybe. Maybe some of you wish that I wasn't wired like that. I don't know. But that's kind of, that's why I love long-form discussions. Here's the other reason I think people... Why I hope that the Matt Fradd Show is a benefit to people. I just feel like we live in a chaotic time. In our society, in the church, it all feels pretty chaotic, doesn't it? So, I think we're all trying to make sense of things. So, like, even if you're a self-declared Catholic or an evangelical or some other religion or an atheist

Starting point is 00:06:50 or a skeptic, we're all trying to make sense of this world. And I think some people are trying to do it through the social justice warrior lingo. You know, some people are doing it through Michael Voris, if they're a Catholic, or through Bishop Barron, or through maybe my shows. Some people are trying to do it by, you know, through the kind of Ben Shapiro or, you know, Trump or anti-Trump. You know, I'm not taking a position one way or another on any of these things. I'm just saying, like, I feel like we're kind of latching on to different people and platforms to try again to make sense of this world. It reminds me of when I went to get my eyes checked recently and they, you know, they me of when I went to get my eyes checked recently and they put the little thing in front of my eyes, what do you call it? That thing where

Starting point is 00:07:30 they click it through until the writing looks clear. And I just feel like that's what we're doing, like click feminism. Let me try and make sense of the world through this kind of lens or how the culture understands feminism or click Black lives matter or whatever, you know, like click whatever, like pro-life. And that's why I feel like these discussions have been so well received, not necessarily in the sense that people like them, but that a lot of people watch them. And Joe Rogan is obviously the king at this. You know, he has a quadrillion people who subscribe to him. I'm not necessarily advocating or promoting him at all. But some of the things he says are very interesting and some of the guests see. Again, the whole point is just that people want conversation because they're trying to figure this crazy world out. So,

Starting point is 00:08:14 anyway, that's what I think the benefit of these long-form discussions are. Now, I think on the flip side, like how they can, the tendency for them to go bad is there because they can be meandering, right? They can be low on content. And I agree with this criticism of my interview with Eni Hickman. Like, Eni is a tremendous friend of mine. I love him so much and always learn from him. He's the kind of guy where I kind of feel like he could talk me into anything because he is so passionate and so sincere and just walks with our Lord. You know, he's a good man, even if we disagree on things, right? But so, yeah. So, I think maybe I didn't, I wasn't as well prepared for the interview as I should have been. I was just like, hey, let's just chat because I love you. Let's just chat, you know? And maybe there's some people out there who just really like that. They like the

Starting point is 00:09:01 meandering, you know, tangents. But I tend, I agree with this criticism. I think it was too meandering. And here's one thing I'm learning right now. Okay. So, like, in the beginning, I was like, okay, let's just do long form discussions, right? Let's see how long we can chat for, you know, as if that was going to be the test for whether it was good or not, you know? That is actually kind of how I thought it. Now, if you had have asked me that at the time, I would have been like, no, that's not what I think. But I think I did think that. I think I did think that. Yeah. So, this last one with Eni Hickman was three hours and seven minutes. And I think there were things that we

Starting point is 00:09:40 touched upon that were great. But yeah, I think there was a lot of me. So, one thing I'm learning, okay, is, yeah, it's, oh gosh, it's so great. Like I learned so much, like that Christopher West interview. Let's just, let's go off on a tangent here, the Christopher West interview, and then we'll go back to what I'm learning with in general. When Christopher came on to the show, I was really afraid that he was going to give a three hour monologue, right? Because Christopher has been thinking about the theology of the body, writing about the theology of the body, speaking about the theology of the body, right? For probably longer than I've been a Christian, you know, like nearly 20 years or something. So, he has a lot to say. And I have seen him on podcasts, like he was on Catching

Starting point is 00:10:23 Fox's podcast. And I kind of felt when I listened to that, that maybe he wasn't going to understand the point of the chat, right? That this was going to be less of a, I ask you a question, you speak, I ask you a question, you speak, but more of a like a dialectic approach, right? Dialogical. And I was so afraid of that, that I kept interrupting him incessantly. And that's totally on me. That's my bad. And I've learned from that, I hope. I can't watch that show anymore. And when people ask me about my interview with Christopher West, or they tell me they've watched it, I'm like, I'm so sorry. I just like, I cringe because I did a poor job in that interview. I felt Christopher was marvelous, awesome. And he had a lot of great

Starting point is 00:11:09 things to say. I was super annoying. And so, I'm like in that I kept interrupting him. Now, I think some interruption is good, obviously. If someone does kind of start ranting for too long, I think to bring life to the interview, you kind of have to interject and kind of guide it a little. And that's something I'm learning. All right. So, that's what I kind of learned with Christopher. But another thing I'm now learning is, okay, Matt, that's me talking to me. Like this is the point of a long form discussion is not the long form. The point is the discussion, right? And so, I think what I'm learning is I need to have some sort of plan and direction and, you be afraid to get off on a tangent because that's why it is a long-form discussion, but it has to have some serious aim or goal. So, I just want to be interviewing Stephanie Gray,

Starting point is 00:12:10 who writes a lot and speaks a lot and debates a lot on college campuses regarding abortion. All right, so that's what I'm going into this interview with, right? Like, okay, that's what we're going to talk about. So, for those of you who are my patrons, I'm going to throw up a post, and you can tell me the sorts of questions you want me to ask, and I'm going to draw from that during the interview. But I think that'll be a lot more of a focused discussion. So, I hope that, you know, if this is a kind of opinion held by many people that they really preferred the Pine interview, maybe that is because it was more kind of, you know, like just directed, you know.

Starting point is 00:12:40 There'll be the other reason, of course, people like Father Gregory Pine is the dude is brilliant, right? He speaks like I can't write. In other words, like if you gave me three days to formulate a paragraph on something, I couldn't write it over the course of three days like he can spit it out having just been asked the question. I mean, he's a brilliant guy. And so, that was a terrific interview and I'm super pumped about it. and so that was a terrific interview and I'm super pumped about it. All right, so that's all I wanted to say. Here are just a few things. Here's some upcoming guests, which I'm really excited about. Peter Kreeft, Dr. Peter Kreeft, philosopher from Boston College, has agreed to be on the show. It looks like that's locked in. Father Mike Schmitz is coming on, if some of you are familiar with his YouTube videos. Anthony Esalen, who just wrote that excellent book, Out of the Ashes, looks like he's going to be coming on. I have some other people that I plan on reaching out to as well. I don't want to kind of say their name just yet,

Starting point is 00:13:33 but really excited about this. As I say, on the Matt Fradd Show on YouTube, right now, I'm releasing one big episode a month, and then I'm having people cut it up into eight particular episodes and releasing them, you know? So, I don't know, man. Look, we all want to tell ourselves that we're doing the will of God, you know? We all want to do that. But that doesn't mean we are. That's my point. That doesn't mean that we are. And so, I just want to give this to the Father and say, Father, if this is a good thing, right? Not just a good thing, because lots of things can be good and still not be the Father's, you know, will. You know, we all have to discern which goods we want to be spending our time doing, you know, just because it's good to be a firefighter or good to be a philosophy professor, it doesn't mean we can do both. That's my point. So, I just want to

Starting point is 00:14:29 give this to the Father, and if it's His will that this continue and grow, that it does. But I want to also pray that if this is not the Father's will, that it fall apart and that it not continue. So, just let me get a little practical right now. Um, just kind of, so you know where I'm coming from. I am currently discerning whether or not we should do two episodes a month instead of one. Now, some of you out there will be thinking, there's no way I can consume two, two a month. Well, maybe you can't, but it's for more than just you, you know, there's a lot of people out there I'm trying to reach. So, here's the cost of that. And yes, I'm about to ask you to give to me on Patreon. So, just before want. The show itself, I pay $1,500

Starting point is 00:15:15 for the guy to edit it all, for the space, those three very expensive cameras. That's $1,500. space, those three very expensive cameras, you know, that's $1,500. Now, the guests, I usually pay $1,500 and I fly them out for that, you know, and give them a stipend because this is their time. They're going away from their families. They have to fly them here to Atlanta. It's not like they can just throw on Skype and we do the interview. All right. So, that there, and that's like at the low end. Like there's some of my guests that are requiring for them to come i need to pay them more than that like so i won't say who but an upcoming guest i'm gonna have to pay about twenty five hundred dollars just for this person's time okay so you think about it as like fifteen hundred right plus twenty five hundred that's like four grand you know um but that's that's maybe the exception so's just stick to like, that's like three grand for YouTube.

Starting point is 00:16:06 But then I have to, I give it to someone who does all the edits and creates all the thumbnails and releases them. And the reason I'm paying people to do all this stuff is because I want the time to be able to do what I'm good at. And one of the things I'm not good at is creating thumbnails and editing videos. And, you know, it's just, it's not a great use of my time. So, you know, one episode, you know, that's about $3,500, right? Think about that. That's a lot of money, you know? Now, if I do more episodes at

Starting point is 00:16:32 this studio, I'll get a bit of a break. So, if I do two a month instead of 1,500, it'll be 1,300, not much of a break. I get it. But anyway, the point is just this, you know, if you want me to do more of these shows, start supporting me on Patreon. I do make money through advertising people, but it's not enough to cover my costs. If you want to see more episodes, then support me on Patreon. That's it, man. Or support me directly by going to pintswithaquinas.com slash donate. you know, if 100 people give 10 bucks a month, that's a huge help, that kind of stuff. If you don't, then that's okay too. Like if you want to stop supporting me, then you can stop supporting me. And that's kind of how I'm going to gauge whether or not I should continue doing these. Right. I really do want this to be a blessing to people. I don't like the fact that the only option people have for long form discussions are people like Joe Rogan and a couple of others. Even though Joe has some great thoughts, he definitely seems to be anti-Catholic.

Starting point is 00:17:31 When he talks about the church, he speaks about it in a way that I think is really unfair. And he also swears like a sailor. Now, I swear like a sailor too, to be quite frank with you, but hopefully not on air. And if I do, you can correct me on that. But he's also blaspheming and things like that. I just think, gosh, there's these teenagers and college students out there. And wouldn't you love them to be exposed to the thought of Peter Craved and Father Gregory Pine and all these other people? especially of college students right now, who in these years where they're being kind of attacked, criticized by people who hate the church and hate what the church is and teaches, I want them to be equipped. And so, I just wanted to throw my hat in the ring. And so,

Starting point is 00:18:20 if this is something that you enjoy and you want to know how to support me, that's what you can do. Can you hear my kids? That's them. I have four kids screaming. They have three friends over. No. And it doesn't matter. Why am I telling you this? This is a part I should edit, but I won't. Okay. So yeah, if you want to support me, you know, five bucks a month, that would be huge. Like, please do that. Please do that. I give you gifts in return. You'll see all the gifts that are there. But as I say, if you don't want to, don't do it. Like, thank you just for listening and pray. Would you pray? It's so easy to ask someone to pray. And I know sometimes people ask me to pray and I'm like, yeah, totally. And I don't, but I believe in the power of prayer. And I believe that if God wants to anoint something,

Starting point is 00:18:58 he will. But that our prayers can be very effective. I don't necessarily want to reach 100,000 people. I want to reach whoever the Father wants me to reach. And I pray that whoever is reached will be inspired and will be challenged to grow in their understanding of the Catholic faith and to love Jesus Christ and to follow Him more wholeheartedly. So anyway, there are a few thoughts on the Matt Fradd Show and what's been happening happening and I hope it's been a help. Maybe this is something I'll do from time to time. Maybe I'll do it. You know what? I'm just going to do it. There you go. I've just made a decision. This is my show. Boom. Just did it. You know, after this Stephanie Gray interview, once it releases, once I get your feedback, I'll come on and I'll just do a little kind of summary and summation

Starting point is 00:19:43 and I'll read the things that you patrons have been posting about the show and just tell you what I think about it. So I hope that's a help. I just want to thank you so much for all, everyone who writes to me and criticizes me, I really take your criticisms to heart. And, you know, this criticism was just super great because it was a really good balance, as I said earlier, of charity. But, you know, being frank at the same time, it's not like I expect people to be like, I'm so sorry. I love you. It's just that, you know, no, like I want people to be direct. Like, you did not do a good job here. You should, you know, I really do appreciate that. But I'm just like you. I respond much better if you're charitable in how you do it.

Starting point is 00:20:18 So, thank you so much to the people who did that. Yeah, really appreciate it. So, thank you. And, you know, subscribe to The Matt Fradd Show on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts. Please subscribe. That way, as these come out, you'll be able to see them when they come out, as opposed to you not subscribing and then missing stuff. God bless you. Thank you so much. Bye.

Pints With Aquinas - Responding to Criticism (An update on the Matt Fradd Show)

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