Catching Foxes

Mrs. Ruvi stops by to chat about Inside Out 2, toxic positivity (if that even exists), and American political culture. They don't talk about Five Iron Frenzy. At least, not too much.

Luke says "they not like us" a bunch, Gomer talks about why he was sad, and Luke gets called out by St. Ambrose on Twitter. Enjoy!

The fellas are back! Down, but never out. Gone for a bit, but always returning for the validation. Gomer muses about technocracy, Luke contemplates DVDs, and the guys worry about Elon Musk.

Alec Maly, author of Out of Sons, stops by the show. As usual, only one of the guys actually read the book. Can you guess which one?

The boys are back at it again, just the two of them. Gomer reminisces on chopped n skrewed music and Hans Urs von Balthasar. Luke wonders what happens after we get sick of the anti-hero.

FC Nashville's goalkeeper, Elliot Panicco stops by the show. Luke freaks out. Gomer doesn't know who Landon Donovan is.

Luke is gone, but Gomer has a great chat with Sara Alexander of Anchor Well Mental Health Services in Sugar Land, TX. The two talk about wellness, post-partum depression, and WEIRD parenting. Stay tuned to find out what that acronym stands for. Enjoy!

The Shannon Gormley stops by to chat with Luke. Gomer is also there, but it's easy to forget that in this one. The guys and Shannon discuss Franciscan, Facebook mom groups, introversion, and Luke new bald head, among other things. Enjoy!

On the list of topics today: Band of Brothers, Durable Trades, The New Polity Conference, and, of course, roofing.

Luke is buzzed and the guys take 30 minutes to start Ten Minute Topics. Everything old is new again. In fairness, Luke is celebrating a new job. Questions discussed today include beige Catholicism, getting started in Catholic media, and whether it's impolite to ask your husband not to get fat. Enjoy!

The guys talk about Gomer's new roofing job and the value of honest work. In other job news, Luke has a new job! And - like the good old days - he cannot (yet) talk about who he's working for. Also discussed: human agency, scummy roofing companies, and the movie BlackBerry. Enjoy!

The boys are back! Catching Foxes never says die.

The guys are back in the studio discussing Steubenville. Some things don't change. We love you, Steubenville Conferences! Also included: Atomic Habits, Noelle Gross, divorce, Cincinatti, and the inability to do push-ups as a 41-year-old man. Enjoy!

It's a little meta, admittedly, but it's still a good chat. Luckily, the Star Wars prequels still get mentioned. The guys chat about deconstruction, profiting from Christianity as a brand, and why you can't show your children Raiders of the Lost Ark too early in life (they'll hate it).

Several Taylor's come up as topics alongside the Oscars, business books, and why we have to remember the human beneath the arguments we don't like.

No Gomer this week. We switched him out for someone interesting, though! Anthony D'Ambrosio, the writer and director of Triumph of the Heart, stops by the podcast to talk about the movie and the value of art.

Is YouTube Shorts making us worse people? Why aren't content sites designed with the user in mind anymore? How is Tim Allen doing these days? All these questions, and more, get answered on this week's episode. Okay the Tim Allen part is a lie, we still aren't sure how he's doing. If you know him, tell him we want him on the podcast.

Luke and Gomer are back at it again talking about TV shows and movies. Included on the docket this week: Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, Band of Brothers, Breaking Bad, and more!

First, the Twitter Argument. Second, 3 things we are looking forward to in the next year.

I was lucky to interview Jacob Imam about the merger between higher education and Catholic social justice principles, especially on the dignity of non-exploitative work and of the trades. Jacob lives in Steubenville, Ohio with his wife and kids and works at New Polity. He and Michael Sullivan launched the now approved College of St. Joseph the Worker.

Mrs. Ruvi stops by the show to talk with Luke about life, Five Iron Frenzy, liturgy, and her many podcasts. We aren't stopping the show, we promise. Probably.

Things don't need you to judge them. Luke and Gomer discuss not having an opinion on everything, nihilism, Bishop Strickland (for the sweet, sweet download numbers), and how Luke's obsession with boygenius might just make him a secret Gen Z.

Even if you haven't seen the newest season of Loki, you'll enjoy this episode. Loki, T.S. Eliot, and God of War all make appearances in this one. Enjoy!

We talk about a lot of things but stumble into the Israel-Hamas conflict when Luke brings up WTF with marc maron on his comments. We talk about how theological diagrams won't save us, how philosophy can console us when theology cannot, and how to be human. Also, Minnie was on the Move in the Carey Apartment and cockroaches the size of my head were on the move at the Gomer Classical Academy.

Luke and Gomer discuss whether ministry will ever pay a just wage, Marian receptivity, beauty in the grotesque, and all manner of worldy smart-sounding topics. Only one f-bomb was dropped this episode, so keep your ears open for it. The ratio of pay to workload in ministry is the scariest thing this year. Happy Halloween!

Luke and Gomer discuss the nature of sin and how it's structurally isolating. The guys get quite real on this one, hence the two hour episode, so get comfortable before listening. Thanks to FREE for sponsoring this episode. See it in theaters only on November 2nd! Check out the trailer below and the website linked below to buy your ticket. Website: https://www.fathomevents.com/events/FREE Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGtJx22SJck

It's episode 400! And it went up late...some things never change. Amanda, the Ministry of Agency Herself, shows up this week. She's a fellow Steubie U (wink, nudge) graduate, and it's sure to be a good time. For centuries, many men and women have left everything to give their lives to contemplation. FREE is a journey into the inner self of man. We have obtained permission to enter and talk to people who rarely utter a word, in places that remain closed to the world: THE MONASTERIES. What leads a person to strip himself of the world he knows, to withdraw from it for the rest of his life? How does such a person think? FREE approaches great questions of man's existence, with only one objective: to listen to them. Go see FREE on Thursday, Nov 2! Check out the trailer below and the website linked below to buy your ticket. Website: https://www.fathomevents.com/events/FREE Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGtJx22SJck

There's only so much Fr. David Hust to go around, so it's back to just Luke and Gomer. They talk Catholic schools (again), creativity and ADHD, and how nonprofits can learn from the for-profit sector.

Fr. David Hust joins Luke and Gomer this week to reminisce about college (obviously) and discuss the state of the modern Church. Strap in, it's a long one!

It's a classic Catching Foxes episode this week, so strap in. Gomer finds a productivity religion, Luke already found one, apparently, and they both get mad about mediocre Catholic schools. Enjoy!

Riverside wasn't terribly kind to us this time, but after technical issues, we're back! We're Luke-less this week. However, like the hydra, we've added three heads after losing one. That's roughly how that myth goes, I'm pretty sure. It's a great conversation about race and Catholicism. Strap in and prepare to be varying degrees of uncomfortable. It's good for you.

Normally Luke and Gomer reminisce about college without a strong purpose. This time, they reminisce so The Mothership will tweet this episode. Please? Luke and Gomer discuss five things they each brought back from their time in Franciscan's Austria program and how those lessons apply to them as actually grown adults. If you didn't believe they were elder Millennials, Gomer unironically says the phrase "school slapped different," three separate times. We give him points for trying. Play this audio Where's Waldo with us and see if you can find all three!

Luke and Gomer talk about our Western obsession with constant growth. Also on the docket for today's episode: flying is the worst, men are dumb in groups (but amicably fun), divorce (yikes), and Apple Vision Pro (again). Enjoy!

Guess who's here...it's Dave VanVickle! Dave "Clubber Lang Gym for Men" VanVickle stops in to give us his thoughts on exorcisms and the morality of the UFC.

We're changing our upload schedule! Turns out people listen to more podcasts on Tuesdays than Fridays and we need that sweet, sweet ad money. We've got a fun round of Ten Minute Topics for this one! Highlights include silverback gorillas, the Catholic imagination, and FHA loans. If that set of topics doesn't intrigue you, frankly, we don't know what will. See you next Tuesday!

Luke and Gomer have Rose M. Rea on the show to talk about her book Defend Us in Battle: The True Story of MA2 Navy SEAL Medal of Honor Recipient Michael A. Monsoor. Of course, when you have three Franciscan grads in one place, the Mothership will also be talked about.

Usually, we can blame Luke and Gomer for the late uploads. This time it's on Producer Joe. Whoopsie! We've got topics, though! Luke and Gomer discuss fear of the Lord, how men and women can have proper friendship, and Luke's transformation into the Kanye West of Catholic podcasting.

That thing Luke's been not so subtly hinting at? We talk about it in depth. Also, Barbenheimer makes its return, Cross Creek Tavern's origin story is revealed, and Producer Joe reaches for the bleep button frequently.

It's not too late to talk about Barbenheimer, right? Luke and Gomer rank Christopher Nolan movies, continue to discuss meta-modernism, and consider whether Barbie is actually a properly conservative film.

BONUS: Kateri Gormley, Gomer's oldest, joins us on the show to make fun of her dad for 10 minutes. Top Gun: Maverick which Tom Cruise used to save movie theaters, is a welcomed change of pace, but also is out of place. YouTuber Thomas Flight breaks down Modern movies (High Noon), Postmodern movies (No Country for Old Men, Pulp Fiction) and Metamodern movies (Everything, Everywhere, All at Once) to talk about this. Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5xEi8qg266g Title: Why do Movies Feel So Different Now? Tradition defined as the meta-narrative creating worldviews of religion and civilizations of yesteryear. Tradition, with its categories, roles, and super-stories, pull everyone and everything into an ordered and meaningful cosmos. Modernism denies tradition’s ability to deal with reality as it is, drawing on science and reason for real progress. This was begun philosophically with Descartes and Bacon and others, but really becomes the cultural vibe starting in the late 1800s and continuing until World War 2, when the notion of progress blew up 2 cities in Japan. Postmodernism realizes modernism buys into meta-narrative just as much as tradition, but in a different way, by supplying a non-religious meta-narrative. Post-modernism attacks moderism by attacking narrative itself, using deconstruction, irony, self-awareness, etc. We go about unmasking stories to find the will to power beneath. All meta-narratives are powerplays, attempts to manipulate and control the masses. The only way to be free, then, is to be undefined, un-storied. Metamodernism is the art of the exhausted, world-weary response to post-modernist subversions, ironies, deconstructionism, that also knows that you can’t simply go back to modernism without feeling corny. So it embraces the deconstruction with an affirming sentiment in the heart-felt chaos. "Cherish these moments" even though these moments are meaningless. It is an oscillation between the delight in narrative and the seriousness of deconstruction and self-reflection. Back and forth, generating moments of delight or fun, knowing all the while it is fake, false, and meaningless. (See "Babylon" or "The Fablemen" or "Nope" that tries to mock that which unabashedly is). This video by Thomas Flight does a great job in tying together previous conversations we have had about David Foster Wallace’s talk on the usefulness of irony (1950s and 1960s America) and when it becomes a deeply disturbing problem as it becomes the norm (1980s onward). We now get what post-modern movies are trying to do because they've been doing it for decades now, only with bigger budgets and with superheroes: "Ok, I get it, you’ve subverted my expectations yet again. Wow. But only you didn’t, because I knew you would do exactly that. I saw it coming". Gomer's example is Amazon’s newest season of the Jack Ryan series. When the selfless friend and philanthropist, the head of W.H.O., turned out to actually be an off-the-charts drug-dealing, torturing psychopath, my wife and I were like, “Yeah. Sure. Whatever.” It fell flat because it was more of the same plot-twisting nothing. Another aspect of the rise of post-modernism and meta-modernism: You know you're getting rich as an artist while real suffering is happening all around you and in the world, even in the lives of the people who love and watch your movies or enjoy your art. So, you draw attention to the process self-reflectively. You point out that, yeah, this is silly, but it’s fun. Maybe we can have fun together doing this. This is why there is a compulsion to stand up on stage at whatever awards ceremony and become an activist. You don't just thank your cast and crew, but must draw attention to the evils in the world around you and condemn them.

Gomer and Luke chat for 1 hour on the horribleness of getting into a rut, Luke's understanding of "strategy", the movie the Sound of Freedom, and Gomer asks a random biblical question: What happens if we delete John 6:4?

Gomer workshops his talks on his children (in between episodes of the mediocre Halo series) and Luke contemplates how to end his time at Notre Dame well. Patreon merch is en route and it is glorious!

Support Catching FoxesLinks:Darren Mooney on Twitter: "I mean, there is the issue of quality, artistic integrity and the idea that it's possible for a work of art to actually, y'know, end on its own terms. Nolan and Bale's steadfast refusal to cynically cash in on nostalgia just enriches those films even further." / Twitter

Luke's Mom is here to talk about her experience in the Catholic charismatic movement!

Let's chat masculinity.

We were going to talk about Apple's Vision Pro and then go from there. Instead, we talk about Intellectual Formation and then talk about Apple's Vision Pro.

We fixed Gomer's audio! And we talk about predestination and the theology of the keys.

Let's chat about art.

We talk Guardians of the Galaxy and Shakespeare. Then Luke brought it all together. Like a boss.

Luke welcomes back Katie Prejan McGrady. And boy, did we have a conversation. Katie came on to talk about TV and Ted Lasso. We talked about TV and Ted Lasso. We also talked about how COVID changed the dynamic amongst Catholic creators, why Ted Lasso is a show that needs to be binged, Trump, Matt Fradd and of course, Katie's new love for soccer! U-S-A! U-S-A! You can find Katie on lots of things, which you should already know about. Check her out on Sirius XM's The Katie McGrady Show airs daily on The Catholic Channel, Sirius XM 129, from 2 to 4 p.m. ET. She also had a podcast with her husband Tommy on the Hallow app. (Luke had a great time getting drinks with Katie and Tommy at a conference in 2017? 2018? Time has lost all meaning) She also has a podcast called 'Like a Mother' on OSV, numerous books, and of course, the Ave Explores podcast. I think this is Katie's third or fourth appearance on Catching Foxes. Glad to have her back. Good people, that Katie McGrady.