In this one I’m chatting with artist Chris Lewis, who runs his business, Baritus Catholic, as both a ministry and an independent (mom-and-)pop shop. We talk about what is it that makes art objectively good, why beauty is also objective, and how AI is such an insult to bonafide human artists. I also ask him what we, as appreciators of good art, can do in our ordinary, modern lives, to support more artists like him.

* Host: Tsh Oxenreider / X

* Guest: Chris Lewis / X / his store, Baritus Catholic

* Create Your Rule of Life

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* Recommended reads

Yes, it’s good for us to work with our hands, and we all should in some capacity. But what about making things with our mind, and even via (gasp!) our screens, too? Yep, that can be done well. Tsh chats with Faith Moore, novelist and (new) podcaster, about making things: she unpacks what it was like to write her first novel from her home as a busy mom, as well as launching a very successful podcast in a crowded niche.

* Host: Tsh Oxenreider / X

* Guest: Faith Moore / X / her podcast, Storytime for Grownups

* Create Your Rule of Life

* Buy a round of drinks

* Recommended reads

Why do we humans, as embodied creatures, need to make things? And more specifically, why do we need to make things with our hands? What’s the benefit on both a personal and societal level? Nate Marshall and I chat about trade work (and the culture’s side-eye of it), what we learn about our souls when we work with our bodies, and what to do about this if we tend to live up in our heads.

* Host: Tsh Oxenreider / X

* Guest: Nate Marshall / X

* Create Your Rule of Life

* Buy a round of drinks

* Recommended reads

Why do we need to make things? Because we need to be people who make things (more than we need things that are made by us). Why? The reason is simple: because making things makes us more into who we’re meant to be. We’re made to make.

* Host: Tsh Oxenreider

* Create Your Rule of Life

* Buy a round of drinks

* Recommended reads

* Ira Glass’ The Gap

Why does localism matter? What does a need to know our local farmers have to do with our souls? Why are our neighborhoods better when we buy and invest as locally as possible (even when it’s a small amount)? Tsh and Seth talk to Hadden Turner, a 20-something British agrarian writer, who has a few things to say about living locally.

* Hosts: Tsh Oxenreider and Seth Haines

* Guest: Hadden Turner

* Where You Are Is Where You Are

* Refuge of Authenticity

* And the Fields Fall Silent

* Tir: The Story of the Welsh Landscape, by Carwyn Graves

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* Recommended reads

Living within your 100-mile radius means living small and local—choosing to, as best possible, participate, buy, and invest our time in only that which is immediately around us, within roughly a hundred miles. There’s no way to do this perfectly, and that’s okay. But is it worth the effort? Probably.

* Host: Tsh Oxenreider

* Create Your Rule of Life

* Buy a round of drinks

* Recommended reads

Acedia is our modern-day dragon — the desert fathers and mothers named it “the Noonday Devil.” What is it, really? And how do we fight it? Tsh talks with Harrison Garlick, a Deacon with the Diocese of Tulsa, to unpack the ladder of love we have to climb to slay our dragon.

* Host: Tsh Oxenreider

* Guest: Dcn. Harrison Garlick

* Harrison’s podcast, Ascend: The Great Books Podcast

* The Intellectual Life, by AG Sertillanges

* The previous episode: Flourishing & Acedia

* Create Your Rule of Life

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* Recommended reads

We've talked about rootedness; now we're moving up the plant stalk to flourishing: thriving, growing well, and generally being who we're supposed to require good roots in good soil. But what's possibly the biggest threat to said flourishing? The ol' noonday devil acedia. What is it? How does it affect us so much? And how do we fight it so we can get back to flourishing? Let's talk about that.

* Host: Tsh Oxenreider

* Bitter & Sweet: A Journey Into Easter

* First Light & Eventide: A Gratitude Journal

* Create Your Rule of Life

* Buy a round of drinks

* Recommended reads