Catching Foxes

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.

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!

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.