Working Man Harmel Academy of the Trades

It is isn’t always easy for people to understand how a Catholic trade school works, especially when you consider that the school combines skilled trades training with intellectual and spiritual formation. And frankly, it is not always easy to explain.
So today, we’re going to attempt to show you instead of tell you, if only in a small way. In today’s episode, we’d like to give you a little glimpse of what it sounds like to study the humanities in the context of the skilled trades. We’re going to do that by publishing part of a lecture from one of our humanities classes, God and Man at Work. In this lecture, you’ll hear a talk that helps make a turn from the first part of this class (where students study the Theology of the Body) to the second part, where they begin laying a foundation for a Theology of Work.
This lecture is about J.R.R. Tolkien’s poem, Mythopoeia. If you’re like our students, you’ll wonder how a poem on mythmaking can help lay the groundwork for a spiritual understanding of work. But argued in this talk, our work is actually part of a very fundamental way of existing in the world, a way of existing that might be best understand by approaching it from the side—in this case, through considering what a poet does.
This is just a little glimpse of how Harmel works, a sample of the discussions we have here, and we hope you enjoy it.
If you know anyone who might be interested in our work—students, donors, partners, priests—would you please send them our way? You can find us on the socials, or at HarmelAcademy.org

Working Man is back for Season Three, and today’s guest is a special one. Adam Mills is an award winning brewer in Cincinnati, Ohio. In fact, in the time between the launch of this episode and the recording of this interview, Adam’s brewery, Cartridge Brewing, was awarded a Bronze Medal, a Silver Medal, and Gold Medal in the US Open Beer Championship, which, much like Ron Burgundy, is kind of a big deal. 
Today, we discuss the relationship between brewing beer and the spiritual life, the importance of simplicity and attention in both, and why chickpeas aren’t a common ingredient in craft beer.

Today on Working Man we are joined by a mender of soles. Petr Kovarik is a bootmaker and owner of Liberty Footwear in Grand Rapids, MI. Today he talks about how he sees his work as the opportunity to serve those around him, and how trusting in God in everything you do is at the core of your work. If you are looking for a good pair of boots head over to libertyfootwear.com and check out Petr's work.

If you listen to this podcast, you likely know already that the Holy Father, Pope Francis, has declared this to be the Year of St. Joseph. Our guest today, Fr. Donald Libby, is the pastor of Holy Rosary Parish in the Diocese of Gaylord, Michigan, and he will give us an introduction to the Holy Father’s Apostolic Letter Patris Corde, and help us understand how St Joseph shows us what fatherhood is all about.

We've been waiting to have this conversation for a long time...

Today we’re talking with CNC Machinist Dan Grabinski. Dan and Dave talk about the state of modern manufacturing, the challenges of finding good people to fill good positions, the cultural side of learning a trade, and the attitude it takes to enter into a tradition of craftsmanship.

At the end of the episode, we’ll also share a short passage from John Paul II’s encyclical Laborem Exercens. That’s an encyclical we talk about a lot on this show, and sometime in the future, we’ll do a deep dive into what are sometimes called "the social encyclicals." But for those of you who have not had time to curl up and read these texts, we’d like to start sharing parts of them here for you to reflect on them as you get Working Man jammed into your ear-holes.