Podcasting About Podcasting | All Five Godsplaining Friars

August 22, 2024

Fr. Gregory: This is Father Gregory Pine. 

Fr. Patrick: This is Father Patrick Briscoe. 

Fr. Joseph-Anthony: This is Father Joseph-Anthony Kress. 

Fr. Jacob-Bertrand: This is Father Jacob-Bertrand Janczyk. 

Fr. Bonaventure: And this is Father Bonaventure Chapman. 

Fr. Gregory: And welcome to Godsplaining. Thanks to all those who support us. If you enjoy the show, please consider making a monthly donation on Patreon. Be sure to like and subscribe to Godsplaning wherever you listen to your podcasts. All right, last stop, not last…

Fr. Patrick: Speaking of podcasts…

Fr. Gregory: I, yeah, exactly. Seamless transition.

Fr. Bonaventure: Don’t jump the gun. 

Fr. Gregory: Well, I mean, guns are meant to be jumped, aren’t they? Or discharged or never mind. Guns are meant for all kinds of things, it seems. 

Fr. Bonaventure: Concealed.

Fr. Gregory: P.S., I just read my last Agatha Christie novel. That is to say I read all of the Agatha Christie novels and short stores because I’m a weird monster of completion and I need a better way by which to channel my energy. 

Fr. Bonaventure: Certificate coming to you, my friend. 

Fr. Gregory: Thank you! I’ve received a certificate in criminology, honoris causa certificate… (laughing) 

Fr. Joseph-Anthony: We’re just dashing those things out nowadays, aren’t we? 

Fr. Gregory: We are. Yep. They come here to do fast. 

Fr. Patrick: We literally give them out like paper. (laughing) 

Fr. Gregory: Like sticky notes or post it notes or whatever the appropriate name for that is. Is post it? Is that the company is like calling a tissue Kleenex? 

Fr. Bonaventure: Yeah, like Hoover like when you’re hoovering. 

Fr. Gregory: Yeah, as everyone says everyone’s favorite verb especially if you’re from North, Canton, Ohio. So we thought that in this episode we might talk about podcasts, not in like the fun/Metafun way of talking about ourselves. For I know not how much fun is to be experienced in such a pursuit, but rather talking about other podcasts, because as much as you might think that we spend all of our free time listening to Godsplaining so as to regale ourselves with our own jokes, we don’t. Um, or at least not all of us do… just for the bottom of it, just to get further material for metanaratidal commentary on future episodes. 

Fr. Patrick: Yeah, that’s why we call him Fr. Pod-aventure. 

Fr. Joseph-Anthony: Back at it. 

Fr. Gregory: Exactly. 

Fr. Bonaventure: I listen to podcasts less than probably all of you do, but we’ll see. 

Fr. Gregory: You perhaps have seen the shelf on my DHS office with its zero books. You happen to have books here on my home office. But that’s like, I claim to be illiterate in that setting. So too, Father Jacob-Bertrand has ear shelves, empty of podcasts, that’s a terrible metaphor. I’ll move on. Okay, so. (laughing) So, thinking about podcasts or talking about podcasts, or just getting into podcasts. What place do podcasts occupy in your life? Yeah, ear shelves, thanks, Father Bonaventure. Father Patrick, are you a podcast man? Are you kind of like for or against? Are you like I only produce I, I don’t consume, or do you, do you, dabble? 

Fr. Patrick: Yeah, so I’m gonna stake out the other end of this spectrum among the Godsplainers, because I am basically always listening to podcasts. 

Fr. Gregory: Okay. Is that like an OSV news, have your ear to the ground, so is to pick up, you know, the stagecoach ride or as he approaches that kind of thing? 

Fr. Patrick: Yeah, that’s definitely part of it. I’m always looking for, you know, I gotta throw stuff in a column every week for the paper and write about stuff. So I have to be looking for it. So I do actually have a legitimate reason to know what people are saying. But some of what I listen to is not news oriented. You know, it’s more, I mean, some things are more like professional development. Like I like “At The Table” with Patrick Lencioni. I think that’s a great podcast. But I also like more entertaining things like “Crime Town” or “The History of Rome”. I’ve been kind of plugging my way through. So I listen on my walks in the morning, gotta get my steps in. And I listen as I’m puttering about my room often as I’m kind of going over things and editing. I’m basically like listening to podcasts all day. 

Fr. Gregory: Just to communicate a spiritual atmosphere to our listeners, when you say getting your steps in, at the end of the day, your Apple health tracker will recount to you how many steps you’ve taken. What are you usually, you’re hitting like an 8,000, like a 10-, that were you at these days? 

Fr. Patrick: Yeah, usually I’m at like eight, you know, the goal being ten. But like if this is a professional setting and I have to tell you what’s up, you know, right about eight.

Fr. Gregory: Yeah shoot for the moon the worst that’ll happened is you go hurtling into space and die of asphyxiation. [overlapped conversation] Father Joseph-Anthony, do podcasts occupy a place in your life? If so, do they have a place at the table or are they kind of condemned to the outer darkness? 

Fr. Joseph-Anthony: I’m probably in the middle ground of everybody. I find myself, I’m more of a content creator with respect to this space than a consumer. But yeah, I listen to podcasts. I find that I listen to podcasts when I drive a lot. So if I’m driving up and back from DC or something like that, it’s helpful to just start a few podcasts and track out a few episodes in that setting. So I find that’s going to be where I listen to podcasts mostly and is a mixture of entertainment podcasts and kind of professional development stuff. So yeah, I would say I’m somewhere in the middle of it. It’s not like a list of podcasts that I always listen to. It’s not like Thursday is my podcast day or anything like that, but I do find that I will tend to listening to podcasts as I’m driving. And the way that things are set up here in Charlottesville, the priory is right across the street from the church. So my commute is 30 seconds, 45 on a rough day when traffic is heavy, but when I am in the car driving a decent distance, that’s when I’ll make my way over to the podcast side of things. 

Fr. Gregory: Now, Father Jacob-Bertrand, it’s been whispered abroad that you don’t listen to podcasts, that your ear shelves are utterly empty when it comes to the stockage, the stockage, the how do you pronounce that word of podcast material. Is that true or is that a slanderous lie? 

Fr. Jacob-Bertrand: Hmm…It’s not not true. I listen to one podcast with some regularity, but it’s sporting a sportif podcast. So it’s not really like pod- you know what I mean. It’s like that. And then there’s one like long form comedy. Well, it’s like interview podcasts that I occasionally listen to. But that’s it. So I think it’s like what? As far as listeners go on this, Father Patrick listens, then I guess probably Father Joseph-Anthony then probably you, Father Gregory, then probably me, then probably Father, Father Bonaventure. I think that would be the order. 

Fr. Gregory: That’s the spectrum. That is our spectral life. Although, Father Bonaventure, you were like a paradoxical case and so far as you take every opportunity to volunteer yourself off the island to you make some metaphors based on the program survivor. So like folks listening at home whenever we do like a little straw poll It’s like hey folks. Do you want to do five episodes for this batch or six, Father Bonaventure always responds “zero”, but then we hold him to his word, which word was never clearly formulated and never promulgated, but nevertheless he has some vague sense that the word was given and as a result of which it is late claim to. But so you’re not, you’re like not a content creator, insofar as you do this unwillingly under duress at gun point. That’s the second mention of gun. But nevertheless, you actually like listening to podcasts a little bit, at least particularly interesting podcasts. Talk to us about your podcast life. 

Fr. Bonaventure: Oh, okay. Well, let’s be, I mean, I’m music things like, so Immanuel Conte, here he is. Yeah. So, get this, this guy listened. I’ll be stuck magnet. Oh, here we go. There we go. So this guy listened to his favorite piece of music. I think three times in his entire life. So I try to set my kind of listening to things based upon that. So the idea of listening to music when you’re driving a lot. It’s kind of a thing like I like a lot of silence in the room. I’m never listening to music and the cell and that kind of thing. Because like it just seems to cheapen it or something. Podcasts are different. Although I, so I do listen to a few of them. It’s on mainly long drives though. Like Father Joseph-Anthony, it seems like the right thing to do, to do something in there. If you’re not gonna listen to music entirely, let it, you know, lest it, yeah, diminish your love of that particular piece. So now I do this to a few. There are two podcasts I probably say, are we doing the pot, are we doing names yet, are we doing – 

Fr. Gregory: You can do whatever you want. This episode has no structure, it’s just a free for all. 

Fr. Bonaventure: Yeah, oh, I wanted to point out quick hegelian reference that Father Jacob-Bertrand made. So he said, I don’t not, I don’t not listen to podcasts, which is double negation. Now that’s cool because it’s not a double negation you would think like negative negative five is just back to five. But Father Jacob-Bertrand’s refusing to awknowledge that it’s the same as just saying yes. So double negating something is a higher form of the original thing, but it’s not the same thing as original, so it’s a Hegelian dialectic. That’s a really cool logical point. 

Fr. Jacob-Bertrand: That’s so cool. 

Fr. Bonaventure: It is. But yeah, I listen to, what do I listen to…

Fr. Jacob-Bertrand: Can you explain it again? 

Fr. Bonaventure: No, I won’t. You missed class. 

Fr. Joseph-Anthony: He’s not getting his certificate. Yeah, no certificate is not given here. 

Fr. Bonaventure: So I listen to philosophy podcasts sometimes, and there are folks. There are just pure philosophy podcasts. And there’s one called Parker’s Pensées. It’s actually named after Pascal’s Pensées, but it’s intentionally mispronounced because the host is an analytic philosopher, so he’s a logic chopper, he doesn’t read all the languages, and so he intends, it’s like a kind of an attack, it’s kind of a joke on himself, so it’s Parker’s Pensees, even though it’s not supposed to be pronounced that way. And he has some pretty cool guests on there, and that’s a great podcast for just straight philosophy with a Christian angle on it, and that’s a great, and some of our guests are actually on there, Professor Tom Ward has been on there um… so that’s that’s a cool show, so I listen to… that’s like academic issue podcast I would say.

Fr. Gregory: Nice! Okay uh… uh… as to the divulging of my own podcast listening frequency, I prefer audio books to podcasts. I don’t know exactly why. I think it’s because podcasts are kind of ungovernable and unconquerable. And in order to prop up my weak little will, I need to like dominate intelligible universes, even if those universes are like the novels of Agatha Christie. And I find that audiobooks are easier to compass than podcasts because they keep going. And they often produce at a rate that I’m not able to keep up with. Like the “Thomistic Institute” podcast, by the way, which is just churning out content, like it’s going at a style. Is that an advertisement? I don’t know, hard to say. But I like, so something that I like to play with is lightness. – 

Fr. Patrick: I’m gonna send Fr. Dominic a bill for that. 

Fr. Gregory: Yeah, exactly. 

Fr. Patrick: That was worth at least $200. 

Fr. Gregory: Yeah, perfect. OK, yeah. Cha-ching, Cha-ching. And we will dedicate that money to our certificate program, folks. So know that we will retain our 501(c)(3) nonprofit status as an educational institution of the utmost repute. But I do like tinkering with languages. I’m not especially good at language acquisition, but I like listening to language and trying to speak languages. And so I do 15 minutes a day of languages. And so right now, the podcast that I listen to are in large part dictated by what people have loaded onto this language service called link, L-I-N-G-Q-dot-com. And so people load up podcasts onto it and then they have transcripts and then you can make flashcards and then you can study and it’s great. So I’m listening to a Spanish podcast called “Español Con Juan”, which is just this dude talking about whatever strikes his fancy in Spanish. And then the podcast that I’m listening to to work on Italian is called “ImpactGirl”, which is an Italian language podcast for female entrepreneurs. [laughs] 

Fr. Bonaventure: Your vocabulary is going to be really sweet. That pastoral application of Italian. 

Fr. Patrick: Oh, that is going to be so amazing preaching. Amazing.

Fr. Gregory: [speaks Italian] So let’s just say I’m not especially discerning when it comes to the choice of podcasts, but I like it because it’s a matter of working on languages, which I think transitions us into the point like what do we what do we go to podcast for like what are we going to looking for because like I imagine that some people come to Godsplaining to learn about the faith and to deepen their life of prayer, that’s the hope but also like it’s fun to take part in a conversation or it’s fun to kind of break up the day or it’s fun to diversify a long drive but like what do we come to podcast looking for and maybe what should we come to podcasts looking for? I don’t know. Father Jacob-Bertrand, do you have a first thought on that? 

Fr. Jacob-Bertrand: Yeah, I guess I think in general, I don’t know. For me, I think there are probably different answers like it could be educational, spiritual, but for me it’s sort of an entertainment value, which doesn’t have to, yeah, it’s not the only, it’s not the only reason to listen to a podcast, but that’s kind of where it registers for me. So I think that’s why I often don’t listen to like podcasts generally because I’m not usually entertained by them. Well, the ones that fall into like entertainment like or not because they’re bad, but because I would prefer like rather than listen to a podcast, I’d rather like watch a movie, for example, for like sort of that kind of entertainment. 

Fr. Gregory: So you can fall asleep. 

Fr. Jacob-Bertrand: So, okay, let’s um…. Yeah, I have this problem. So I’d rather go to sleep than listen to a podcast, which is, I barely make it through ten minutes of a movie generally before I pass out. So that’s fair. But yeah, for me, I know a lot of people listen for like you were saying, Fr. Gregory, spiritual enrichment or educational, kind of things, that blah, blah, blah, fine, great. I think those are all valid and good for my own personal tastes, it’s an entertainment thing. And if it’s not kind of checking that box, then I’d rather not listen, get my work done kind of be free for a later time to kind of have some leisure. But I realize- again, I realize that’s a me interpretation of what podcasts are for sure. 

Fr. Gregory: Yeah, maybe maybe, um, Father Patrick, uh, what are some of the risks with podcasts? Obviously, you know, you’re living on the news cycle and so there’s a kind of hustle, there’s a kind of flow, but there can be an effervescence- no, that’s not the word I’m looking for, an ephemerality, a transience to all of that. And so far as like, you know, what happened in the news a week ago, doesn’t necessarily matter this week, at least as it concerns the work of the world. And I think like podcasts, maybe they pose a similar risk and so far as they direct our attention where it perhaps ought not to be directed or needn’t be directed. What do you see as to like risks of podcast consumption? 

Fr. Patrick: I think that’s right. And you’ve laid it out right there, the basic premise of the argument, which is that you can get too caught up in what’s going on in the world and it doesn’t actually help you in the demands of your life. I mean, this is the same thing that happens to people who are addicted to cable news or to any other kind of entertainment that draws them away from the demands of their life. So the balance to be had is to be found by examining whether or not one is really faithful to one’s state and life, one is faithful to one’s vocation and whether or not something is disturbing your peace. If you’re listening to a new podcast and you find that you’re always angry, maybe you don’t actually need to listen to that news podcast. Maybe it’s affecting you in a way that you need to liberate yourself from. So turn it off. Or not just turn off a podcast, but better yet replace it with something like Godsplaining. It’s going to help you think about each journal things, about higher things things about the greatest things we had in this life until such time as we’re called home to God which sounds like phrase for the Gregory would say. 

Fr. Gregory: I was thinking the same thing. 

Fr. Patrick: So I think that I think that we certainly should be critical about the kinds of things we’re listening to and how much time we spend listening to who we spend listening to. I mean these are all these are all good, good assessments for the media we consume in general being mindful of all of this. 

Fr. Gregory: Father Joseph-Anthony, you thoughts, when you talked to your students and they’re just like little content consumption monsters. What do you counsel them or how do you counsel them? 

Fr. Joseph-Anthony: I think the risks of podcasts in that sense is that we always have to have some noise going on. So if you’re walking across grounds or going from one thing to the next, you have to fill that space with something. And podcasts are attractive because it can be substantial. Like you can learn more, whether that’s about history or philosophy or, you know, the faith and you’re like, oh, this is good content. So it’s okay. And it’s actually, you know, laudable to be listening as I go in between things and stuff like that. But I do think it’s important sometimes to just take their, take their AirPods out of your ears and, you know, walk across grounds and say hi to people and allow open yourself up to engaging with somebody that you come across their path on. And so I know, you know, we’re all rock and airpods and things like that. And, but that is a huge barrier sometimes to encountering people. So I think the risk of that is the temptation to always fill your life with things. And so occasionally it’s good to open yourself up to the circumstances, the environment that is actually around you, and to be able to hear the birds chirping or something along those lines. So I think it’s about a balance and trying to figure that out. But I think, especially with college students and there’s such an emphasis on, as soon as you get out of class, you pop in your AirPods so that you can get to the next point in your zone where it can encourage a certain type of isolation, which I think is risky. In that sense. 

Fr. Gregory: Nice. Father Bonaventure, you look like you’re either seeing an apparition of the Blessed Virgin Mary or your guardian angel, or drawn to events outside your window by virtue of the fact that they have just constructed a four story crane whereby to erect a five story crane, and it goes on from there, or something else besides. Alert us to your interior states, and also your thoughts about podcasts. 

Fr. Bonaventure: Yeah. So first off, yeah, we are the statue of Mary in front of the House of Studies apparently is is dangerous and unstable and could like hurtle down and kill someone immediately. So we’re replacing that. So get ready for that, folks. The other thing is when I was doing my dissertation, I was reminded myself about this. I put on my wall, my favorite picture. So I was doing it, there was some translation thing I was doing and I threw it through like a translator to help out a little bit on something to check on things and I got this out here. It has awesome stuff to like the title of their Crucian metaphors. It just pulled up a weird like freedom. It shows a brand of things and has deers on there. And so when Father Joseph-Anthony was talking about something, I just thought about deers. Podcasting! Let me see. What do I expect? What do I want for podcast? So that was a question before but I’m going back to that. So a podcast are kind of the letting your hair down as Father Jacob-Bertrand always says. It’s kind of the green room or the behind the scenes. We talk about serious things. Podcasts in my experience are generally talking about serious topics, but in a kind of non-serious or less serious way, it’s not a lecture. It’s very different from your listening lectures or books on tape or something like that. It’s more conversational, but not as you listening in on a conversation of two people about a good topic. And it’s less, even though it can have this level of performative aspect to it that you’re trying to perform as not performing, I think when podcasts are really good and the ones I like to listen to, so like for instance Glenn Show, Glenn Lowry and John McWorter have a great podcast, just spectacular. And they’re talking about racial issues and economic issues and they have great guests on there. It was a lifesaver during COVID and BLM kind of stuff. But what’s fascinating about them is they’re both two very intelligent men who like each other. They’ve been friends for a long time and they just have a conversational time with each other and tone and there’s something free about that and it makes serious things a little bit less serious and more approachable from different areas and I don’t feel like I need to tune out an economic stuff feels like I can actually jump in and engage and McWorter is an expert in linguistics. But it’s the kind of conversations you would have with smart people from different walks of life that all of us could engage in. And they were all able to more and more engage in. So I think that’s the conversational education is nice. And also, I listen to podcasts, I guess, also to kind of hone the… to get better myself, to think about what podcasts, ’cause I had no idea what podcasts were at all, no idea. And to listen to what is expected of a podcast, because I remember the first year we were doing this, I always say, I don’t know if we should do this, or a thing, and you would always say, that’s podcasts, it doesn’t matter. It’s totally fine if you do that. You know? And I still had no idea, because I thought they were just, I thought they were just like short lectures that you gave, supposed to kind of freewheeling nonsense. So that’s the two reasons why it’s in podcast. 

Fr. Gregory: Yeah, just so you know listeners, I’d say like one out of four times I recorded an episode with Father Bonaventure, he says, “um, should we re record that?” And I typically say, “Nah, it’s just how podcasts go.” (laughing) But I think you’re right in the sense that podcasts have this kind of way of being non-authoritative, authoritative or non-moralistic, moralistic. Because you listen to a podcast and you get to know these people and what they love becomes what you love and what they hate becomes what you hate. Not in a manipulative way or kind of controlling way, but in a kind of para-friendship way. And so like podcasts have a way by which of yeah, accompanying people through their lives, commanding to people good things and steering people away from bad things, which I think is it can be powerful, you know, but there’s something about it too where I think it’s important that they be like a little bit informal. I mean, I think that like the Gen X tendency is to sit behind the news desk and read from a teleprompter. The millennial tendency is like, “No, that’s wrong.” But this should be coherent and we should get rid of likes and ums we should clean this up so that way it’s nice and tight. But the Gen Z tendency is, “Let’s just push record and I’m gonna go get a little snack and then I’m gonna eat it on camera and then I might talk about what I’m thinking right now like in five minutes. And so you can see there’s a general tendency towards authenticity as it were sincerity or openness, vulnerability, transparency. And I think people want that because like a younger generation is especially sensitive to anything that’s false or artificial, put on or otherwise played up. And they just want to know who you are, the conversations in which you’re participating so that way they can get in and partake, you know, because I think the people want communion. And as friendship becomes harder and harder to host in the real world, I think people take a kind of solace in consolation and participating in para-friendship. So then it makes it all the more important to get people to come together in genuine community so that way they can firm these up or flesh them out or whatever else it is, get married. So all right we’re kind of coming to the end of our time. Maybe we can just do like recommendations. What it can be either recommend a podcast that you love or recommend a podcast consumption practice if you have a kind of cool prudence as to a podcast consumption practice if you have a kind of cool prudence as to a podcast consumption practice. Uh, Father Jacob-Bertrand, you want to go first?  

Fr. Jacob-Bertrand: Yeah. I would, I would, I guess, go into the practice world or side of things. I think that podcasts should be, this is gonna sound like a whatever, typical me comment, but I think there’s it’s not just to like say something sarcastic that podcast are kind of disposable in the sense that like you should listen to them for what you get out of them. So if you’re looking for the, you know, foe that sort of spiritual enrichment or entertainment or kind of father Patrick, you mentioned some history podcasts, you know, if that’s what you’re looking for, then great pick them up, listen to them, but I don’t, you know, but they serve a purpose and I don’t think like being loyal to a podcast. That’s what I don’t know if that’s that’s the case. But I think they’re helpful and probably you can find better stuff out like in podcast world than like other kind of garbage media world. So yeah, I think like they’re they’re disposable in the best sort of way. Like they can serve, they can serve your kind of what, like needs for listening, which I think is a great thing. That’s a helpful thing. So, yeah. 

Fr. Gregory: Father Joseph-Anthony? 

Fr. Joseph-Anthony: Yeah, recommendations. So I find that I engage with podcasts, like I said, when I’m driving most of times and it kind of mixes back and forth between entertainment and like professional development stuff back and forth between entertainment and professional development stuff. So on the entertainment side, I feel like so stereotypical, I don’t, yeah, I kind of enjoy true crime podcast. That’s a real genre out there. So there’s a few of those that I enjoy. Father Patrick mentioned Crime Town, I found that whole series. They have multiple seasons. I found that whole series, they have multiple seasons. I found that fascinating. There’s another one, Anatomy of a Murder where they actually break down all the circumstances that go into some of these interesting things. So that’s on the true crime side. I also like a lot of sports podcasts. And as we’ve mentioned before, I love to golf and I love golfing. So I listened a lot to the Subpar podcast, which are two former golf professionals. And they do some really cool interviews with different caddies on tour and talk about the most recent tournament and some things coming up in that way. So there’s a lot of golf podcasts I like, but I do enjoy the Subpar podcast. And then on the professional development side, Father Patrick may have already mentioned this, but Pat Lencioni’s At the Table podcast. I really draw a lot from that. That one is one that I repeatedly go back to. He has- it’s short, punchy, and they have some really good nuggets for learning how to be a good leader in the professional sector. And I’ve gained a lot of support from that podcast. So I would say At the Table is kind of my go-to on the professional side of things. 

Fr. Gregory: Nice. And if you search at the table you might also find a Josh Garrels song by the same name. Also worth listening to. It could be a source of many blessings in your life. Father Patrick, recos. 

Fr. Patrick: Sorry, it was just blasting “Rich Men, North of Richmond.” I think that I think that a great podcast to just dive into if you are a Catholic man is the Catholic Man show, Father Bonaventure and I have met up with those guys. Father Gregory, have they had you on? 

Fr. Gregory: I have been on, yep. 

Fr. Patrick: I can’t remember others, Father Joseph-Anthony, Father Jacob-Ber- they’re working their way through us. 

Fr. Joseph-Anthony: Yeah, we’ve had them on. I know we’ve had them on in the past. They’ve joined us. We’ve had Pat Lencioni on as well. So keeping those mutual support going through podcast world. 

Fr. Patrick: Yeah, those guys are great. And that’s what I really wanted to share with him. You know, one thing I didn’t expect from Godsplaining was to find this network of fellow travelers and other Catholics that are up to great projects. And one person I swap a lot of ideas around with is Kate McGrady. I think she’s wonderful. She’s got a sweet podcast and a couple of the projects. And so, so to the friends we’ve made along the way, this is my parting shot about podcasting.  

Fr. Gregory: Father Bonaventure, refined thoughts… unrefined thoughts, weird thoughts  un-weird thoughts. 

Fr. Bonaventure: Yeah, I was gonna, I was gonna recommend the Catholic Man show for men, they’re great. I’m sure there’s a Cath- is there a Catholic women show? I guess like Be Given or something?

Fr. Gregory: It’s called Abiding Together. 

Fr. Bonaventure: Abiding Together, right. That’s out there too. So for the ladies amongst us. But I was also thinking the nice part of a podcast is you can listen in on a kind of a personal conversation that you wouldn’t be privy to unless the person new you, so one of the things is you can listen to people that are from a different perspective from you or different side of things from you. You have in personal conversations that you would not know my access to because people would not be willing to talk openly with you in some ways. And I find that helpful. Again, the Glenn Show I think is helpful for that because John McWhorter is, uh, he’s a middle of the road guy, but he’s different than, than Lowry and I’m different from both them in a sense and multiple ways. But you get to hear intelligent people from different sides speak about things and have real conversations and that’s, that’s nice because we’re going to have to have difficult and yeah, interesting conversations with people that disagree with us a lot and just learning the tricks the trade and listening to how people do that. And also hearing means it might surprise you is good. So podcasts give you an opportunity to listen in, to intimate or personal conversations, or real conversations with people that you otherwise would not have access to. That’s beneficial. 

Fr. Gregory: Yeah, I guess my final thought is that podcasts are also kind of like proving ground for vocation, not in the sense that like important parts of your vocational development will take place in the context of a podcast. But in the sense that like you learn through podcasting that it’s fine to be weird, weird to a certain degree or extent, like you shouldn’t like collect your toe nail clippings and make jewelry out of them and like sell them at local markets. But like it’s if you’re interested in this thing, you can explore this thing, you know, within the bounds of orthodoxy and happy, healthy Catholic life. Like in the podcasting space, there’s a handful of podcasts, which are for all comers and they’re awesome. And I’m sure they probably have like 75% of the market share, like, you know, the Father Mike Schmidt’s podcasts of which I think there are four and then the Word on Fire podcasts of which there are two. And it’s like you come to discover pretty shortly in that like from our vantage you can’t compete with those things because those guys are awesome and holy and smart and talented and they’re doing something that is great. And it’s like Godsplaining will never be Word on Fire Part 2 or Bible in a Year, Bible in 364 Days because we talk a little faster. You know, it’s like, Godsplaining, it’s always gonna be weird. It’s always gonna be Dominican. We’re always gonna have conversations that are gonna cause people to scratch their heads and be like, what, but that’s just, I don’t even, you know, but it’s like, as Father Bonaventure once said, it’s like sushi, you know? You have it one time, and then you leave, and then a couple of days later, you’re thinking like, that sushi meal is really good. I think I might have sushi again, you know go to the local Wegmans, get myself a 16 piece California roll or spicy tuna and I think that like a lot of our vocational lives kind of unfold in similar fashion. Father Jacob-Bertrand’s like you just butcher the image and I hate you. But like a lot of our vocational-

Fr. Jacob-Bertrand: Sushi from Wegman’s?

Fr. Joseph-Anthony: Yeah, Wegman’s has great sushi. No, I’m a stand by that. I’m a big Wegman’s sushi guy. 

Fr. Jacob-Bertrand: You’re from West Virginia. 

Fr. Joseph-Anthony: They got a Weggy’s down here! 

Fr. Bonaventure: If you want trashy sushi, Wegman’s is the place to go. Look, it’s on track. If you want trashy sushi, Wegman’s is awesome. 

Fr. Joseph-Anthony: I love Wegman’s sushi, man. I might just go hit that up right now to be quite honest once we finish this up. 

Fr. Gregory: That’s a great call. I’ll join you. We’ll meet halfway, just an hour…

Fr. Joseph-Anthony: Spicy tuna. That’s where it’s like. 

Fr. Bonaventure: Send him sushi in the mail. 

Fr. Gregory: Yes. Send him sushi through the mail with Cane toads. Cane toads bearing sushi. But in like kind of given expression to the weird interest that you have, you’ll come to find fellow travelers, you’ll come to find people with whom you can spend your life, you’ll come to find a place in which you fit. And I think that there’s something cool about participating in conversations, which give kind of expression to that or give scope for that. I think that’s a kind of muddled thought, and I’m not entirely sure that I expressed it well, but I think there’s something cool about podcast as niche or podcast as like small town community or podcast as place where I congregate and where I host a conversation that other people are delighted to participate in because they haven’t found it elsewhere. So I think that that reflects something of the diversity of the mystical body and I get excited about that. All right. I think- 

Fr. Joseph-Anthony: Yeah. I got one last thing. One podcast of none of us have mentioned yet, but it’s on that same vein of like the diversity, the Body of Christ in this sense, is the Poco Poco podcast. Like, we love the Poco boys. It’s so fun to like watch their Franciscan charism and come out in real display. And it is different than our Dominican charism, but I love watching that. I, oddly enough, I consume Poco mostly on YouTube. So like, yeah, I’ll watch their podcast a lot, but I think that’s another podcast that I love to throw out there is like, these are great guys doing exactly what you said, that kind of unique aspect of their spirituality, but it’s really on display and they have a great dynamic and fraternity amongst each other. 

Fr. Gregory: Boom. Any other final thoughts? No. All right. Well, if you’re looking for a podcast about female entrepreneurship, ImpactGirl is the podcast for you. In short of that. Maybe you can stick with Godsplaining. Then we’d be delighted to accompany you along the way as we go to God together. So thanks as always for listening to Godsplaining. Please follow us on Facebook, X, and Instagram. If you would, in your generosity in the kindness of your heart liked the episode, subscribe on YouTube, your podcast app, and leave a five-star review. We’d appreciate it. And then if you’d like to donate to the podcast through Patreon, you can do so by following the link in the description or show notes. In that same description or show notes, you’ll find links for merchandise. And for upcoming Godsplaining events, we got a Day of Recollection coming up in New York City on October 19th at our parish there in Greenwich Village, St. Joseph’s. So it’s going to be sweet. It’s going to be awesome. It’s going to be sw-awesome. No, I can’t come up with a compound word there that doesn’t sound weird. All right, know of our prayers for you. Please pray for us, and we’ll look forward to chatting with you next time on Godsplaining.