Explore every episode of the podcast Catching Foxes

Luke and Gomer talk about the passing of Gomer's father, but the episode isn't all doom and gloom (just the appropriate amount). Also included this week: an attempted murder, gray-market drugs, and a review of The Odyssey.

In This Episode:

• Luke and Gomer compare notes on sleep, snoring, and inheriting their dads' blood pressure meds
• The legend of Dave Van Vickel: grocery deliveries, a mid-street knife fight, and a jury summons
• A review of The Odyssey movie, mythology demythologized, and Elliot Page's casting
• Gomer reflects on his father's death, anticipatory grief, the Sirach 38 reading, and the funeral
• Don Gormley's Shell/Texaco career stories, plus Luke's deep dive into nasal breathing, buzz breathing, nitric oxide, and gray-market Redatrutide

• Chapters:

• 00:00: Intro — Sleep Problems and a New YouTube Rabbit Hole

• 06:09: Blood Pressure Meds, Family History, and Following in Dad's Footsteps

• 08:21: The Legend of Dave Van Vickel (Knife Fights and Groceries)

• 16:53: Sponsor — Faith Mosier, Dallas Healing House

• 18:37: The Odyssey Movie Review

• 24:41: Back to Dad — Carrying His Ashes and the Sirach 38 Reading

• 32:11: Anticipatory Grief, Hard Conversations, and the Funeral

• 1:00:47: Don Gormley's Career — From Skelly Oil to the Shell Tanker Standoff

• 1:10:04: Sponsor — Cloister Ignatian Prayer App

• 1:14:16: Welcome to the Dead Dads Club

• 1:16:34: Nasal Breathing, Buzz Breathing, and Nitric Oxide

• 1:32:02: Redatrutide, GLP-1s, and Wrapping Up

Resources Mentioned:
Dallas Healing House
Cloister Ignatian Prayer
ParishSOFT
Catching Foxes Substack

Produced by Saint Kolbe Studios

Gomer's dad is out of the hospital and in a care home and this episode starts there, in the territory of walking a parent toward the end of his life. Luke and Gomer work through the lessons Gomer has picked up in the trenches: what hospitals won't tell you, how to have the DNR conversation, and why AI has become an unlikely companion through all of it.

In This Episode:

• Why hospitals won't spell out what's actually happening with your loved one and how Gomer used AI to decode his dad's medical charts and communicate clearly with family
• Lesson one from the hospital: no one will tell you what's going on unless you make them, and the only people who will are in palliative care
• The do-over myth and why middle age is when you realize the world stopped giving them to you—you don't go back, you live with the scar tissue
• The DNR conversation: what it actually means, why outside-of-hospital DNR requires a signed document on the door, and why you should have it sooner than you think
• When specialists miss the whole person: how productivity-driven, siloed medicine can leave no one reading the full picture

Chapters:

• 00:00: Welcome Back
• 00:46: Gomer's Dad and the Care Home
• 02:08: Lesson One—Hospitals Won't Tell You Anything
• 07:25: Luke's Dad and Losing People Too Soon
• 20:00: The Gradual Decline You Can't See Coming
• 24:00: Reality, Do-Overs, and the Things That Can't Be Undone
• 29:38: When Specialists Miss the Whole Person
• 37:54: The DNR Conversation
• 41:47: Big Fish and What We Learn from Our Parents' Stories
• 48:21: What Parents Say When They Think It's Time
• 53:23: AI, Claude, and the Bot That Said It Was Praying for You

Resources Mentioned:

• Rebuilding Mum and Dad (YouTube)
• Catching Foxes on Substack

Produced by Saint Kolbe Studios

This episode offers everything you've ever wanted to know about The Lion King and then some.

It's basically a free Shakespeare class.

Plus, why music makes you feel certain ways and the Mary Sue character in the new Star Wars movies.

Enjoy!

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.

"Our hearts are heavy and light. We laugh and scream and sing. Our hearts are heavy and light." - Jamie Tworkowski , To Write Love on Her Arms

Great chat about engineering parenting vs shepherded parenting. There’s a lot we can’t control. But there are some things that we can.

Luke plans to take Everleigh to the Symphony once a month. Gomer already showed The Dark Knight to to his wonderful and impressionable children.

Gomer quits and then we talk gay weddings for 40 minutes.

The Tridduum? Check. The Japanese and kids? Check. Other Catholic things? Check.

Nature gives you the face you have at twenty. Life shapes the face you have at thirty. But at fifty you get the face you deserve.

Now would be a join the Catching Foxes Patreon community. Wink, wink. Nudge, nudge. www.patreon.com/cf

Thanks to Joe Coleman for producing Catching Foxes!

And thanks to Luke and Gomer for being so great!

And big thanks to the Man upstairs for cheesy lines from the 90s!

patreon.com/cf

Weekly episodes resume Friday, March 31.

Gomer and Luke chat with Katie Ruvalcaba about her new podcast, Parasocial Anxiety. Which tells an insane story she experienced. There's swatting, fandom, and a lot of stuff there. We go pretty deep. It's a good one.

We also talk about Five Iron Frenzy, the greatest band to ever band. And probably a few other things I am forgetting.

MAJOR thanks for Producer Nick (Nick Sciarappa) from Clerically Speaking for editing this episode!

Anthony D'Ambrosio of Triumph of the Heart stops by the show to talk about the process of bringing Saint Maximilian Kolbe's story to life. Get the inside scoop on what it takes to make a Catholic movie that doesn't actually suck.

Enjoy!

We continue the exploration of Internal Family Systems within a Catholic context, especially as it relates to common wounds we experience. Crazy Insightful: "Even secular psychologists see habitual porn and masturbation as a 'Shame Cycle.' Many classify addictive masturbation as a form of 'self-harm'."

Luke and His Mom Talk About Sports and Stuff.

*Feb 18, 2013 Update
*
Fixed that weird metronome thing. You do have to delete your original download and then redownload the episode to hear the fixed version. Never let Luke edit your podcast.

We interview Dr. Greg Bottaro about what's really wrong with modern therapy and how the Theology, Philosophy, and Anthropology of Saint John Paul II can bring hope and healing to people. We end the discussion on the topic of Internal Family Systems approach ("parts work") and pick it up from there next week! Check out the links for more information!

First, the most glorious ADHD interaction over Gomer's rejection of medicine and doctors because he's scared. Then, Luke says Uncle Wade says the universe is no longer centered around our generation. Third, Gomer lists Coen Brothers' movies and Luke rates them.

1. Best alcoholic beverages you've ever had?
2. Top Moments from the Past Year?
3. Have you (luke) been doing your skincare?
4. What Catholic thing you just can't get behind for whatever reason? What is your favorite day of the week?
5. do you and your significant other share music tastes, if not, how do you deal with that?
6. Words or themes that come to you about 2022? Words or themes for 2023? Words/Themes for celebrities?
7. Cohen Brothers next hit: a western? writing stuff? what's new?
8. Chrismation at infancy: why is the East right?
9. A canonized saint that you think of for your co-host?
10. What are the holiday traditions that need to go away and what new ones do you want to start?
11. Thoughts on Expeditionary Force: Failure Mode? (gomer nerds out!)
12. Best advice for a new dad?
13. Favorite Karaoke song to sing in front of people and favorite in the shower?
14. WHY HASN'T GOMER LOOKED AT MY EMAIL AND SENT ME MY MCCARRICK STICKER?!
15. How do you keep going when physical/mental health is in the garbage?
16. How is your ADHD going?
17. Bird's eye view on the Mr. Frank Pavone thing?
18. Why doesn't Luke like any Catholic people? j/j but not really.

We talk about Gomer's trip to the Holy Land, how he got violently sick the day he arrived in Jerusalem and how God made it amazing.

Originally recorded 9/25/22.

Luke and Gomer sit down with Clark and Andrea to discuss the real-world impact of Medical Assisted Suicide. Clark's mom, a longtime MS sufferer, was diagnosed with cancer. Due to Canada's permissive laws on Euthanasia, circumstances in her life pushed her in that direction. However, Clark and Andrea's love would slowly change her heart not only toward life but toward the Giver of Life. Hear their story.

You need to hear their story and inform yourself with the links included in this episode.

In the Year of our Lord 2022, on September 3rd,
Gomer and Luke interviewed Luke's favorite soccer podcast hosts, Taylor and Joe from the Total Soccer Show.
We talk MLS, English Premiere League, favorite memories, and of course, predictions for the World Cup.

Gomer knows absolutely nothing about anything, so if you:

• want to listen to him make an ass of himself
• want to learn alongside him

Then you should give this episode a listen! It is actually a lot of fun. The best part is listening to Luke try to show how knowledgeable he is and impress the soccer show guys!

I sit down and chat with Matt Meeks of Catholic Ventures and Anthony D'Ambrosio, Head of Product at Catholic.Store and founder of Catholic Creatives.

Catholic Ventures acquired Catholic Creatives because Matt Meeks saw the movement that Anthony is his team had begun and wanted to ensure that it would keep rolling. Anthony and Matt have worked together and are now collaborating on bringing creative and talented folks together in Catholic.store where you'll find big and small Catholic publishers, jewelry makers, artists, and Sock Religious.

There is a new Catholic aesthetic in town and it doesn't look like shitty modernist Crayola-level crap. It's excellent and big-time Catholic publishers are finally taking notice.

This episode was recorded on October 18, 2022, before I left for the Holy Land. Brian Jones is back. We talk about morality, the Catholic vision, in the context of how do we teach it today to a motley crew of high school students.

Has our world gotten flatter? Are all the edges of culture rounded out and mass produced to the lowest common denominator?

Luke and Gomer discuss how movies have lost their soul and houses have gotten gray and boring (and badly made).

Take a shot anytime two men in their 40s discuss interior design on this episode (maybe don't listen to this one in the car).

Enjoy!

Dr. Scott Hahn is making the interview rounds with his new book, "Holy is His Name: The Transforming Power of God’s Holiness in Scripture". There are some truly amazing concepts about holiness that blew me away when I was reading through this book.

Insights you'll get from this episode*

• holiness mentioned in Genesis only once, then explodes in Exodus
• the Old Testament, with the exception of Daniel's prophecies, never calls individuals holy, only things or groups, but not individuals
• we can easily forget the Holiness of God is something other than the moral rectitude we call Righteousness
• You are called to be holy, but that doesn't mean "a good moral person"

Also, my audio software did not capture Dr. Hahn's audio all that well. SORRY!
https://stpaulcenter.com/product/holy-is-his-name-the-transforming-power-of-gods-holiness-in-scripture/

Luke likes raising money for the Church. Kevin Fitzpatrick is incredibly good at it. This show is the lovechild of their brains and experience.

What happens when we adopt a thousand other jobs that we never used to do? DIY but not for yourself.

_House of the Dragon vs. Rings of Power! Who wins? Who loses? Why is Gomer so easily replaceable? _

In the end, we have a thirty-minute discussion on Quentin Tarantino and how Gomer likes him sorta because of Trent Horn, which causes Luke to lose his mind.

Nate Hoffman is a co-worker of mine at the parish. He's also a podcaster, Handsome Guys Cry Too. And a Lord of the Rings fanboy.

“I have earnestly desired to eat this passover with you before I suffer." -Luke 22:15

Luke contemplates the classic TLM move while Gomer pounces, dances, and pontificates.

Also, Shia and the good Bishop. Our thoughts (please, Matt Fradd, share the Shia)

Then we conclude with a review of House of the Dragon.

Gomer goes to prison, but first to preschool. There he learns about "Desert Joy".

Fr. Justin Fletcher is a priest of the Ordinariate of the Chair of Saint Peter. He was an Episcopal priest, married with kids, and converted to Roman Catholicism. He is also a student and lover of the Catholic liturgy and explains things so incredibly well. I interviewed him about two months ago in my house at 9pm with my buddy, Brian Jones, and we ended around 2am, which was awesome. This was my first recording using my new soundboard and I screwed up MY microphone. So I apologize.

1. the Readings (Lessons) and why they are doxological and not didactic
2. what lay people are expected to do during Mass
3. how the novus ordo tends to cater to those wanting didacticism
4. how Catholicism is different in kind, not degree, from all forms of Protestantism
5. Oklahoma living
6. Irishman joining the ... Anglican-use Ordinariate?
7. shedding culture and reclaiming culture
8. rootedness and being settled in one's surroundings and people
9. Funeral liturgies and my desire to die
10. funerals are not a 'celebration of life'
11. CS Lewis' book That Hiddeous Strength
12. Finally, what's it like being a married Catholic priest?

**PROBLEM: **When goes a good thing become a bad thing? What if temperance looks a lot different (and maybe harder) than just not getting drunk or endlessly binging shows? Worse of all, what if temperance bores me to death and I don't want to do it anymore?

CCC #1809: Temperance is the moral virtue that moderates the attraction of pleasures and provides balance in the use of created goods. It ensures the will's mastery over instincts and keeps desires within the limits of what is honorable. the temperate person directs the sensitive appetites toward what is good and maintains a healthy discretion: "Do not follow your inclination and strength, walking according to the desires of your heart." Temperance is often praised in the Old Testament: "Do not follow your base desires, but restrain your appetites." In the New Testament it is called "moderation" or "sobriety." We ought "to live sober, upright, and godly lives in this world."

Main question: What happens after the gimmick is done?

1. Marvel Problem- a lot has been said in other podcasts, not looking to rehash what other people have said, but looking at the phase four problem under this guise of this quote- something about how god forgives and nature revolts
2. CD sales are increasing
3. The exhaustion of the streaming wars- Streaming Fatigue: Too Many Choices, at Too High a Cost? – Media Play News
4. The death of college football- College Football Is About to Change Drastically

What does a culture of gimmicks do to the human person? What is your culture connecting you to?

Get his book, Principles of Sacred Liturgy and of course read through it. It will open your mind towards right and good attitudes that transcend the silliness of personal preferences and attachments to this or that thing. "Start with the documents" and not our idealogy.

I bring up a lot of cultural issues that go along with liturgy: heretical hymns published in Catholic hymnals, confusion over what the Church is asking of us liturgically, music issues in the Mass, liturgical vs. devotional music, and the role personal prayer plays in the "wild creativity" that Pope Francis blames in part for liturgy wars today.

AI has plenty of potential upsides. Helping you think more deeply about life isn't one of them. Maybe, if done wrong, it helps us fulfill our worst desires.

Will AI reduce us to simply our desires? Can it free up time in our lives to contemplate the truth?

Also, there's a lengthy discussion about sex with robots towards the end. It's topical, we promise, but maybe don't listen to this one with your kids. Maybe don't listen to any Catching Foxes episodes with your kids.

Enjoy!

I love Dr. Abigail Favale and her work in the Church is much needed. Her new book, The Genesis of Gender: A Christian Theory by Ignatius Press is out and is poppin' fresh. We discuss the main figures of the feminist movement and the core of their philosophies as it shifts into the gender movement: Simone de Beauvoir, Margaret Sanger, and Judith Butler.

Then Luke walks in. Literally, he walked straight into her conference room where Dr. Favale was recording and joined the show. His audio sucks because he's on his phone. I spent 40 minutes just trying to make it sound better. This is what you get.

Anywho, good conversation. And boy do I miss Lukey.

John DeRosa is an incredible Catholic who runs the Classical Theism Podcast. He interviewed me for the show and we decided to dual-release it. His version will come out in a couple of weeks or so because, unlike me, he plans ahead for months. We talk about why the sacraments are not "super-added" to simple gospel faith, but are integral to it.

Gomer got another YouTube religion: clean my space. So while Luke is away, I decided to email my favorite YouTubers and chat about their life, work, and success. Melissa was the first to get back to me and she does not disappoint. We talk cleaning, our hatred of it, how it can ruin marriages, and then practical products and tips on actually cleaning. It's like therapy.

We interview Fr. David Hust to talk about the things priests do and how they should do them well: weddings, funerals, confession, and the Holy Mass. This show is basically in three parts: Confessions, then Mass in general, then the Weddings/Funerals topic. We also reference "Mass of the Ages, ep. 2" which was pretty incredible at explaining how the liturgy when from Latin Mass to Novus Ordo without being jerks about it.

First, you are burning out. Second, it's not entirely your fault. Third, here's how to take steps to change it all.

Brian started his job as one full-time person replacing two full-time people, plus a part-time assistant. The things that were happening on the job were insanely counterproductive, but also looked very busy. Why are certain things happening the way that they are took reframing the context within which much work was done. "Why am I reprinting the Roman Missal? It's right there with you. You don't need 7 copies of 90% of it printed in binders."

Mary ran the bulletin. It used to take 20 hours a week to do and required a minumum of 10 business days for publication. She reduced it to 4 hours and staff members can send her stuff on that Monday morning. She realized the bulk of her work was spent taking parishioner bulletin submissions that were 2-page Word Documents and condensing them. Instead, she created a free Google Form and specified the character limit maximum. Now, parishioners self-edit and create a paragraph of text instead of an essay.

But what if your boss cannot tell the difference between doing good work and looking busy? What if your corporae culture looks like everyone is a damn day trader on Wall Street. Everyone is monitoring 12 inboxes but no one is moving the needle and everyone is stressed out!

Temporary Co-Host, Brian Jones, returns to NOT talk about the liturgy. Instead, we discuss his time in a Cleveland inner-city charter school as a teacher and compare/contrast institutional schooling (public, charter, private, parochial) with homeschooling (hybrid, classical, and Robinson Curriculum).

We also talk about the stupid "super Catholic" pressures we put on each other when it comes to schooling, number of kids, age of marriage, etc.

(originally aired 08/2021, "What do Catholics Say about the Atonement?" on the Classical Theism Podcast)

John is a fantastic man. He's a high school math teacher at a public school and defends 2,000 years of the Catholic Intellectual Tradition on the side. He really does love the God of classical theism. This was initially aired on his great podcast: Classic Theism Podcast, episode 160.

Here's his show notes about the episode:
What do Catholics believe about the atonement? Why does it matter that some guy died 2000 years ago? How can we distinguish Catholic views from Reformed protestant views of the atonement? How might we understand Leviticus 16, Isaiah 53, 2 Corinthians 5:21, Romans 8:3, and 1 Peter 2:24 in light of the Catholic view? Michael Gormley joins us to tackle these issues head-on.

We discuss the liturgy wars from a different framework. Not the annoying "This is more/less reverent" but rather, what are the context and conditions of our current situation that produces malformed Catholics? Why do Catholic lose their minds over the removal of silly nonessentials that get added into the liturgy where they should not be?

Formation and Culture matters.

This guy.

We start with a bloody crucifix in my parent's house in 6th grade and then the OSU frat life, to seminary, to engagement with his now-wife, to the military, to law school, to an oil company to 11 kids and counting.

We discuss his St Paul-like conversion within Catholicism, his annoyance with Traditional Latin Mass communities as a grown-ass man, dealing with Pope Francis's comments that cut him deep, his experience of Iraq during wartime, and keeping his faith alive all along the way.

Finally, we talk about things like what it's like having 11 kids today and how he deals with stupid comments.

Yeah. I miss Luke, too.

We discuss all things liturgy in this second half of our conversation. Vatican II's theology was great, but its pastoral implementation, which is ironic, was miserable. Also we find out Dr. Larry Chapp is an adult Altar Boy... An ALTAR MAN!

Can we know what reality is? Not in some college-freshman-philosophy-major-existentialism way, but in how we see the world. Are reproductions of things real versions of the original?

The fellas continue to talk about the ethics of AI and whether we've lost the ability to truly view realty.

Tune in next week for part two of this discussion!

Gomer interviews Dr. Larry Chapp about Hell, Hans Urs von Balthasar, and Tradicals in the Church. He's loud, opinionated, fun, and smart as HELL. We dance around Nouvelle Theologie, Thomas Aquinas, and the state of the Church.

This is part 1 of 2.

We got Kanye West's older brother, Christopher, and his friend, Mike Mangione to talk theology of the body, gender, genitals, generation, music, waterskiing, and God is Beauty, a retreat Saint Pope John Paul II gave to artists in 1962. Incredible stuff

Chapters!

Fr. Gregory Pine, O.P. talks about his new book. Well, he wants to but Gomer doesn't let him for the first 60 minutes. Instead, GOMER HAS QUESTIONS! Recorded on Feb 23, 2022, so, you know, better late than never!

Special Guest: Fr. Gregory Pine, OP.