Catching Foxes

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 (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.