Sword&Spade

Jason Craig
  • 5.0 (17)
  • Self-Improvement

The Sword&Spade podcast is about...

  1. 3d ago

    Stop Raising Your Kids to Leave Home w/ Javier Velazquez

    Most people drive through a forgotten small town without a second look. Javier Velazquez, writer of the Substack Exiled Heart and founder of the consulting practice Townward, sees a deep America underneath it. He joins Jason Craig to talk about the local history developers and franchises keep plastering over, and why a man with real affection for a place may be what that place needs most. In This Episode, We Cover: Why small towns keep handing their story to developers and national franchisesHow an outside YMCA push edged a thriving, dad-run youth sports league out of the local gymsWhy raising kids to think success means leaving kills Catholic cultureSeeing a row of pine trees as lumber versus seeing the meaning a man planted there a generation agoWhy local wealth belongs in the local townResources Mentioned: FraternusExiled Heart by Javier VelazquezTownwardFind Your Brothers: You Need Brothers, And They Need You.DON’T GO ALONE Fraternus gets men out from behind their screens and shoulder to shoulder, building a Catholic culture their sons can inherit. Find your brothers at https://fraternus.org/memberships/ Chapters: 00:00: Homeless in the house you own05:44: The country beneath the country08:41: The forgotten spring behind the Verizon store15:04: A YMCA push and the dad-run rec league20:28: Vision 2020 and what “development” really means29:10: Raising children to leave everything that matters35:18: Seeing a place with affection instead of use39:38: Permission to recover what was lost47:41: The good King Wenceslas option54:31: Fatherhood and the fight for one small townProduced by Saint Kolbe Studios

  2. Oct 22

    More Rules Won’t Win Back Your Son (But This Will) w/ Alvaro de Vicente

    Alvaro de Vicente has led the Heights School, a Catholic school for boys in Maryland, since 2002. He joins Jason Craig to explain why a boy hitting puberty starts asking whether following his father will make him part of the community or get him rejected by it, and why the other men in his life matter so much at that moment. In This Episode, We Cover: Why education is the transfer of a culture, not just facts and skillsHow hiring teachers who believe in the mission does most of a headmaster’s workWhy a boy needs to hear other men say what his father saysWhy families should host one another before the house is clean and the dinner is perfect, and how those friendships let fathers correct one anotherWhy a son who knows he can come to you without being punished has less reason to lieResources Mentioned: FraternusMen in the Making, Alvaro de VicenteThe Heights ForumHeightsCastThe Heights SchoolFind Your Brothers: You Need Brothers, And They Need You.DON’T GO ALONE Fraternus gets men out from behind their screens and shoulder to shoulder, building a Catholic culture their sons can inherit. Find your brothers at https://fraternus.org/memberships/ Chapters: 00:00: Talking with men in the arena, not influencers01:58: Educating a boy vs. making a man07:01: How a school builds a real community15:17: Why boys have lost the vision of manhood20:15: When a boy asks if his dad is a typical man27:35: False rites of passage and buying a peer group33:34: The ministry of the imperfect dinner41:13: Preparing sons for sin without exposing them to it45:58: Letting your son come to you without punishment52:14: Cinderella Man and fatherly authorityProduced by Saint Kolbe Studios

  3. Oct 15

    Stop Handing Your Son an App. Give Him Something Real w/ Dominic Andres of Roughhouse Magazine

    Dominic Andres had a job and a visa lined up to sell cars at military bases in Japan. He stayed home to start Roughhouse, a print adventure magazine for boys, instead. Today, he joins Jason Craig to explain why boys are hungry for something real and why it should arrive in the mailbox. In This Episode, We Cover: Why a magazine in the mailbox breaks the spell of the internet in a way no app for your kids ever willWhat made a young writer turn down a job selling cars in Japan to publish for boysWhy boys today are deficient in reality, and why they crave itWhy the magazine is written only for boys, and how a co-ed version would get in the wayHow short, digestible pieces can hook a boy who doesn’t like to readResources Mentioned: FraternusRoughhouse MagazineThe Dangerous Book for Boys by Conn Iggulden and Hal IgguldenOutlaws of Ravenhurst by Sr. M. Imelda Wallace, SLCaptains Courageous by Rudyard KiplingFind Your Brothers: You Need Brothers, And They Need You.DON’T GO ALONE Fraternus gets men out from behind their screens and shoulder to shoulder, building a Catholic culture their sons can inherit. Find your brothers at https://fraternus.org/memberships/ Chapters: 00:00: Introduction02:56: Growing up homeschooled without the internet06:39: A boys’ magazine or a car-sales job in Japan09:51: Why a print magazine for boys in 202617:51: Reality is good: the vision behind Roughhouse22:43: Why boys on a hay wagon say “this is good”27:47: Why Roughhouse is only for boys34:16: Male influencers and expertise without experience36:47: What readers and parents are saying43:10: A first book for a ten-year-old boyProduced by Saint Kolbe Studios.

  4. Oct 8

    Your Success Won’t Heal Your Wounds w/ Jerry LoCoco

    Jerry LoCoco grew up in a trailer in rural Yuma, Arizona, the son of a violent father and a mother who became a meth addict when he was thirteen, and he spent years hiding that background behind a law degree and one accomplishment after another. None of it healed him. He joins Jason Craig to talk about the masks men build as boys, his novel, Gringo Salado, and the habits of silence, prayer, reading, and writing that finally began to heal his wounds. In This Episode, We Cover: Why Jerry sees poverty, not race, as the true enemy of kids raised in chaosHow the coping habits that keep a child safe, like sorting every person into good or bad, start damaging a grown man’s relationshipsWhy a law degree couldn’t heal his woundsWhat mimetic desire is, and how chasing what other men have leaves you emptyWhy feeling lost around forty can be a tug toward God rather than an excuse for a midlife crisisResources Mentioned: FraternusGringo Salado, A Story of Faith, Hope, and LoveDisordered Self Love, How It Saves and Then DestroysDavid TorkingtonFind Your Brothers: You Need Brothers, And They Need You.DON’T GO ALONE Fraternus gets men out from behind their screens and shoulder to shoulder, building a Catholic culture their sons can inherit. Find your brothers at https://fraternus.org/memberships/ Chapters: 00:00: Judging people raised in chaos02:39: Where the name Gringo Salado came from07:37: Poverty runs deeper than race17:22: A book that opened in his hometown23:53: Why a man has to understand his wounds36:11: The Thanksgiving play and the mask50:13: Mimetic desire and the treadmill of wanting59:50: Finding silence at Mass01:09:20: When nothing works at forty01:14:55: Looking beyond your own homeProduced by Saint Kolbe Studios

  5. Oct 1

    Evangelization Isn't Your Primary Job as a Catholic Man w/ Marcellino D'Ambrosio

    Marcellino D'Ambrosio spent years in youth ministry trying to win kids back from the school day and the sports schedule. It didn't work. He joins Jason Craig again to explain why Catholic men have mistaken their calling for a religious one, and why the real work in front of fathers is building a culture their children can actually live inside. In This Episode, We Cover: Why the Great Commission was addressed to the clergy, and why hospitality is the layman's evangelical virtueHow small acts among men—a feast-day barbecue, a bottle of whiskey for every new father—build the culture that keeps kids CatholicWhy retention, not evangelization, is the church's real problemWhy a parish or apostolate job can stall a young man's vocationThe difference between chasing status and earning honor among men who know youResources Mentioned: FraternusMarcellino's First Appearance on Sword&Spade (Spotify)Marcellino's First Appearance on Sword&Spade (Apple Podcasts)Sherwood FellowsRerum Novarum, Pope Leo XIIIJOIN 2500+ MEN READING SERIOUS, YET ACCESSIBLE ESSAYS ON VIRTUE, CULTURE, AND LIVING WELL: https://fraternus.org/sword-and-spade/ Chapters: 00:00: Leo XIII's overlooked call to rebuild the guilds05:51: The evangelization mindset Catholic men inherited11:17: The Great Commission and the layman's real job16:51: Men as the builders of Catholic culture20:55: Start with a feast-day barbecue27:54: The church's real problem is retention33:02: When a new pastor shuts down a men's chapter37:45: Why young men shouldn't take parish jobs42:07: Chasing status vs. earning honor53:09: Building for a hundred years from nowProduced by Saint Kolbe Studios.

  6. Sep 24

    Your Children Will See Your Failings Someday w/ Adam Taylor

    Adam Taylor, a former Marine and the son of Poetic Knowledge author James Taylor, has spent the last six years teaching his father's vision of education at St. Martin's Academy and is now co-founding St. Joseph's Academy in Mississippi. He tells Jason Craig how the goodness of his childhood carried him through a family tragedy and years apart from his father. He also makes the case that education has to reach the heart before the mind can build on it, a truth he says even classical schools can forget. In This Episode, We Cover: What poetic knowledge is—the sensory, emotional way we come to know and love reality—and what Dickens's Hard Times shows about an education that deals only in factsHow Adam came to terms with his father's failings in the years after the accident that took his mother and three siblingsWhy a father who admits fault and lets his son into his suffering keeps a bridge open to that sonHow real encounters form the imagination, and why Adam calls formation "a way to achieve prudence before your time"Why boys need to make and break things, even as high school seniorsResources Mentioned: FraternusPoetic Knowledge: The Recovery of Education by James S. TaylorSt. Joseph's AcademyCornbread CatholicCatholics' Lost Cause by Adam L. TateJOIN 2500+ MEN READING SERIOUS, YET ACCESSIBLE ESSAYS ON VIRTUE, CULTURE, AND LIVING WELL: https://fraternus.org/sword-and-spade/ Chapters: 00:00: Adam Taylor, James Taylor, and John Senior's legacy02:46: What poetic knowledge is, and the horse in Hard Times10:17: A childhood immersed in the real17:58: Seeing a father's failings, and the accident at fourteen23:35: Letting your son into your suffering26:11: How the Marines began the healing31:10: What poetic knowledge looked like at home38:59: Imagination and prudence before your time46:02: Where classical education falls short53:25: St. Joseph's Academy, Cornbread Catholic, and the Catholic SouthProduced by Saint Kolbe Studios.

  7. Sep 17

    Stop Hunting the Devil and Look in the Mirror w/ Dr. Dan Schneider

    Jason Craig asks Dr. Dan Schneider, author of The Liber Christo Method, whether the Catholic fascination with exorcism is actually helping men fight. Schneider argues the real battle runs through a man's own senses and the wounds he hasn't dealt with, and Craig adds that a man who won't face those wounds leaves his family to carry them.  In This Episode, We Cover: Why an unholy curiosity about the devil backfires, and why Schneider ranks the demon third in any battle plan, behind Christ and the obstacles blocking graceHow the demon of impurity doubles as the demon of fear, and why confessing the same sin over and over can miss the unhealed wound underneath itSmall mortifications to start with, like giving up meat on FridaysWhat the imprecatory psalm about dashing babies on the rock teaches about crushing vices earlyWhy a husband's authority comes down to two duties: provide and protectResources Mentioned: FraternusThe Liber Christo Method by Dr. Dan SchneiderHoly League InstituteThe Spiritual Combat by Dom Lorenzo ScupoliUnseen Warfare, edited by St. Nicodemus of the Holy Mountain and St. Theophan the RecluseChapters: 00:00: Introduction03:09: Why Exorcism Content Has Exploded07:46: The Enemy in the Mirror and the Five Senses17:06: Why Impurity and Fear Share a Demon24:00: How the Demon Plays Off Your Algorithm28:07: Training One Virtue at a Time31:38: Small Mortifications and Mental Prayer35:13: Crushing Vices While They Are Small46:02: Where a Father Should Start at Home54:54: God Will Ask About Your FamilyJOIN 2500+ MEN READING SERIOUS, YET ACCESSIBLE ESSAYS ON VIRTUE, CULTURE, AND LIVING WELL: https://fraternus.org/sword-and-spade/ Produced by Saint Kolbe Studios.

  8. Sep 10

    How to Discover the Life God Wants for Your Family w/ John Cuddeback

    Jason Craig sits down with philosopher, homesteader, and Christendom College professor John Cuddeback, author of The Intentional Household, to ask why a home no longer becomes a household on its own. They work through the ordinary parts of family life—meals, manners, diapers, shared work, the care of the elderly—and why these are exactly where a household is either built or lost. Dr. Cuddeback makes the case that the father who wants a real home has to know what he is building before he can decide what to keep out of it. In This Episode, We Cover: Why an unintentional household doesn't stop people from mattering—it just stops the home from being run as though they doWhy it is not an accident that babies need changing several times a day, and what that daily closeness was designed to communicate to a child who cannot yet understand a wordThe one place to start when the whole project feels out of reach: the family meal, eaten together with bodily presence, manners, and unhurried conversation, no matter where the food came fromWhy manners are the beginning of morals, why the father has to model them before he enforces them, and why formality deepens relationships instead of stiffening themWhy restriction alone never wins the argument with technology—the question is what the screen is replacing, and whether there is a life worth protecting behind itResources Mentioned: FraternusThe Intentional Household by John CuddebackLifeCraftSupra Dinner SocietyChapters: 00:00: Intro03:09: Why a household now has to be built on purpose09:58: Life gets harder as it gets better15:40: The part that falls apart without the father21:01: Start with the meal, whatever is on the plate25:34: What a child learns at a table the father leads36:58: Hospitality is the layman's way of preaching41:53: You cannot say no to a screen without a yes to something50:18: The home that only consumes59:10: Growing old inside the householdJOIN 2500+ MEN READING SERIOUS, YET ACCESSIBLE ESSAYS ON VIRTUE, CULTURE, AND LIVING WELL: https://fraternus.org/sword-and-spade/ Produced by Saint Kolbe Studios.

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Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
17 Ratings

About

The Sword&Spade podcast is about...

Information

  • Creator
    Jason Craig
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    44
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Jason Craig

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