Sword&Spade

Jason Craig
  • 5.0 (13)
  • SELF-IMPROVEMENT

The Sword&Spade podcast is about...

  1. 1D AGO

    Apologetics Without the Ego: Joe Heschmeyer on Winning Souls, Not Arguments

    Joe Heschmeyer has spent nearly two decades at the forefront of Catholic apologetics—first as a blogger and lawyer, now as an apologist for Catholic Answers. In this conversation with Jason Craig, Joe unpacks what the explosion of online apologetics has gotten right, where it  goes wrong, and what Catholic men most need to hear about bringing the faith from the internet into actual life. In This Episode: How Catholic apologetics went from the fringes to a dominant force online—and what that shift has produced in the pewsThe ego trap inside apologetics culture: when defending the faith becomes about winning arguments rather than winning soulsPascal's method for correction: why understanding what someone gets right is the key to showing them where they errSt. Thomas Aquinas's four marks of a man growing in wisdom, and how they apply to every conversation you'll have todayWhat new converts most need after RCIAChapters: 00:00: Welcome & Jason's Conversion Story02:22: The Rise of Catholic Apologetics Online08:11: Church Architecture as Theology14:28: Joe's Journey From Law to Apologetics24:58: When Apologetics Becomes About Ego32:57: Translating Online Zeal Into Real-Life Witness35:43: Pascal's Method for Winning Hearts45:40: St. Thomas Aquinas on Growing in Wisdom01:10:39: Advice for New Converts01:14:31: Rootedness, Community, and the Faith That BakesResources Mentioned: Catholic AnswersShameless Popery PodcastFraternusThe Rise of Christianity by Rodney StarkPensées by Blaise PascalJOIN 2500+ MEN READING SERIOUS, YET ACCESSIBLE ESSAYS ON VIRTUE, CULTURE, AND LIVING WELL: https://fraternus.org/sword-and-spade/ Produced by Saint Kolbe Studios

    1h 20m

  2. APR 16

    The Gatekeepers of Culture: Gregory Wolfe on Literature, Faith, and the Books That Last

    Gregory Wolfe has spent 40 years hunting for something most men assume doesn't exist anymore: serious, beautiful, Catholic literature written by people still alive. As the founder of Image journal and now publisher of Slant Books, he's found it—and he's here to make the case that the Church's artistic tradition isn't in a museum. It's being written right now by people you've never heard of. That's on us to fix. What We Cover Why newness is not the enemy of tradition and never has beenWhy Waugh, Greene, and O'Connor were condemned by Catholics before they were celebrated by themHow T.S. Eliot's conversion to the Church of England unlocked a new way of reading modernist poetryWhy Michelangelo's Pietà caused riots in Rome — and what that tells us about art todayThe Catholic writers most Catholics have never heard of — and why that's a problemChapters 00:00: Who Is Gregory Wolfe?04:29: From Mimeograph to Magazine: A Life in Publishing10:23: The Church of What's Happening Now14:21: Why Newness Matters in Art19:46: T.S. Eliot and the Living Tradition25:32: The Shock of the New (Even Michelangelo's Pietà)31:24: Waugh, Greene, and O'Connor Were Condemned—Then Celebrated39:01: The Still Small Voice: What Contemporary Fiction Whispers44:36: Catholic Writers You've Never Heard Of (But Should Know)49:51: Tell It Slant: The Mission of Slant BooksResources Mentioned Slant BooksChild of These Tears by Molly McNettWe Shall Not All Sleep by Tony WoodliefRedeployment by Phil KlayImage JournalJOIN 2500+ MEN READING SERIOUS, YET ACCESSIBLE ESSAYS ON VIRTUE, CULTURE, AND LIVING WELL: https://fraternus.org/sword-and-spade/ Produced by Saint Kolbe Studios

    1h 4m

  3. APR 9

    Something Worth Worshiping: Ross Arlen Tieken on Paganism, Magic, and Conversion

    Ross Arlen Tieken is a writer, educator, and seventh-generation Texan whose path into the Church ran through paganism, medieval scholarship, and a profound encounter with beauty. In this conversation with Jason Craig, Ross traces how a childhood hunger for something worth worshiping—cultivated on a farm in Shiner, Texas—led him from neo-paganism and a grant-funded expedition to study druids in rural England to the sacramental universe of Catholicism. Chapters: 00:00: Introduction and Ross's Texas Roots07:11: Catholicism in the Family and the Wound of Rejection09:58: A Search for Something Worth Worshiping13:40: Studying Neo-Paganism in England18:35: Medieval Magic, the Saints, and the Path to Conversion31:51: Distinguishing Magic from Sorcery37:55: The Sacramental World vs. the Technological Mindset46:05: Agriculture, Liturgical Cycles, and Participating in Creation51:37: The Occult, Spiritual Warfare, and Political Convictions01:05:41: Rootedness, Wealth, and Parting Advice for FathersResources Mentioned: Ross Arlen Tieken on SubstackOur Lady of Walsingham, HoustonJOIN 2500+ MEN READING SERIOUS, YET ACCESSIBLE ESSAYS ON VIRTUE, CULTURE, AND LIVING WELL: https://fraternus.org/sword-and-spade/ Produced by Saint Kolbe Studios

    1h 24m

  4. APR 2

    Taste, Formation, and the Perpetual Adolescent w/ Joshua Gibbs

    Jason Craig sits down with Joshua Gibbs, a classical literature teacher of 19 years, author, and director of the Classical Teaching Institute at the Ambrose School to talk about what it actually takes to form young men and women. Drawing from his book A Parlay with Youth and his essay "Overgrown Adolescence," Gibbs offers hard-won wisdom on taste, discipline, coeducation, and what perpetual adolescence is costing the rising generation. What We Cover: Why the sophomore year is the critical window for forming young men, and what happens if they miss itHow consuming bad things dulls the mind, and what it looks like when a student finally wakes upThe case for sex-segregated education and why coed classrooms make boys harder to form and disciplineWhat the rise of the "18-to-34" demographic reveals about arrested development and perpetual adolescenceWhy over-praising children is more likely to stunt their growth than almost anything else a parent can doChapters: 00:00: Introduction01:33: Gibbs' background and the making of A Parlay with Youth09:35: How bad consumption creates dullness12:23: The sophomore year awakening17:28: The age of accountability and middle school19:55: A second crack at life at age 26–2726:53: The first rule: adults must genuinely like youth34:24: The case for sex-segregated education49:51: The rise of the 18-to-34 demographic58:48: What perpetual adolescents are missing01:12:31: Closing advice for fathers: on over-praiseResources Mentioned: A Parlay with Youth by Joshua GibbsSomething They Will Not Forget by Joshua GibbsLove What Lasts by Joshua GibbsIn the Trenches podcastGibbs ClassicalDivini Illius Magistri by Pope Pius XIJOIN 2500+ MEN READING SERIOUS, YET ACCESSIBLE ESSAYS ON VIRTUE, CULTURE, AND LIVING WELL: https://fraternus.org/sword-and-spade/ Produced by Saint Kolbe Studios

    1h 16m

  5. MAR 26

    Stop Critiquing, Start Building: Walker Larson on Marxism, Localism, and Cultural Restoration

    Walker Larson is a writer, former classical school teacher, and the voice behind The Hazelnut Substack, a journal dedicated to the pursuit of the good, the true, and the beautiful in literature and culture. In this conversation, Jason and Walker reflect on what it means to build rather than merely critique, the dangers of internet narratives, Wendell Berry's "age of divorce," and why every father owes it to his soul to pick up a great novel. In This Episode, We Cover: Walker's fertility journey, devotion to Our Lady of La Leche, and the hidden cross of infertility for Catholic men and their wivesThe temptation to critique and "get clicks" — and the harder, more necessary work of building cultureHow the "hermeneutics of suspicion" is rooted in Marxist literary theory and has leaked into internet discourse and conservative mediaLocalism, medieval guilds, and what Rerum Novarum says about protecting communities from consolidating powerWalker's case for why busy fathers need great literature—and what it does that no self-help book or YouTube video canChapters: 00:00: Welcome 01:22: Walker's Fertility Journey: Our Lady of La Leche and the Gift of Daughters 07:39: Infertility as a Hidden Cross 12:38: "Beyond Apocalypse": The Case for Cultural Restoration Over Critique 16:41: The Hermeneutics of Suspicion 28:06: Conspiracy Thinking, Victimhood, and the Work Only You Can Do 35:26: Localism, Guilds, and Rerum Novarum 58:16: Why Busy Fathers Need to Read Great Literature 01:03:39: Literature as a Trial Run for Life 01:17:56: Two Planes of Knowing: Abstract Facts vs. Lived Truth Resources Mentioned: "Beyond Apocalypse: Believing in Cultural Restoration" by Walker Larson — Crisis MagazineThe Hazelnut Substack — Walker Larson's writing on literature, culture, and the permanent thingswalkerlarsonwriting.comJOIN 2500+ MEN READING SERIOUS, YET ACCESSIBLE ESSAYS ON VIRTUE, CULTURE, AND LIVING WELL: https://fraternus.org/sword-and-spade/ Produced by Saint Kolbe Studios

    1h 25m

  6. MAR 19

    Beyond the Catholic Manosphere: Resentment, Self-Knowledge, and Real Masculinity w/ Sam Guzman

    Jason Craig sits down with longtime friend and fellow veteran of the Catholic men's online world, Sam Guzman, the founder of The Catholic Gentleman and now a practicing counselor. They take an unflinching look at where the Catholic Manosphere started, where it's gone wrong, and why resentment and pseudo-wisdom are poor substitutes for real masculine formation.  In This Episode, We Cover: The rise and dark side of the Catholic Manosphere—resentment, red-pill Catholic opinions, and the problem of influencers without experienceSam's journey from communications work at Pro-Life Wisconsin and Covenant Eyes to becoming a Catholic counselor through Divine Mercy UniversityThe origins of therapeutic culture in the aftermath of the World Wars and the collapse of institutional meaningSelf-knowledge as the essential foundation of holiness, drawing on Augustine, Dietrich von Hildebrand, and AquinasThe two most common wounds counselors see in men—emotional numbness and emotional overwhelm—and what fathers can do about it nowChapters: 00:00: Introduction and Origins of the Catholic Men's Online Space09:25: The State of Catholic Men Online: From 2013 to Today12:18: The Dark Side of the Manosphere — Resentment, Red Pill, and Bitterness15:00: The Problem of Pseudo-Wisdom and Influencers Without Experience32:39: Sam's Journey From Marketing to Counseling37:29: The Therapeutic Society: Origins, Excesses, and Real Value47:29: The Case for Counseling54:09: Self-Knowledge, Augustine, and the Path to Holiness59:10: Two Common Wounds Counselors See in Men01:08:22: Aquinas on the PassionsResources: The Catholic GentlemanDivine Mercy UniversityJP2 Healing CenterCovenant EyesLeaving Boyhood Behind by Jason M. CraigLitanies of the Heart by Dr. Gerry CreteTransformation in Christ by Dietrich von HildebrandJOIN 2500+ MEN READING SERIOUS, YET ACCESSIBLE ESSAYS ON VIRTUE, CULTURE, AND LIVING WELL: https://fraternus.org/sword-and-spade/ Produced by Saint Kolbe Studios

    1h 14m

  7. MAR 12

    The Case for Reading in an Age of Noise w/ John Clarke

    What does it actually mean to be literate, and do men in the trenches of daily life actually have time for it? Jason Craig sits down with John Clarke of Cluny Media to make the case that reading is less a cultural pastime and more a spiritual necessity, as essential to a man's formation as physical training is to his body. In This Episode, We Cover: Why literacy is like athleticism: a trainable capacity, not an elite clubWhether men today genuinely need to wrestle with ideas on the pageHow books and screens form the mind and imagination in fundamentally different waysWhy you need a guide, not just a book listPractical advice for literary nerds on how to share ideas without alienating everyone around themChapters: 00:00: The Bridge a Literary Publisher Builds04:34: Defining Literacy—The Athleticism Analogy14:26: Christianity's Relationship with the Written Word18:13: How We Are Formed (Whether We Choose It or Not)22:45: Books as a Lifelong Habit, Not a Checklist29:13: Why You Need a Guide, Not Just a Book List31:30: What Books Do That Screens Can't37:07: Screen Recommendations for Young Kids50:48: Advice for Literary Nerds: Integrate and Trust54:20: Don't Read Alone. Ideas Belong in ConversationResources Mentioned: Cluny MediaThe Holy Spirit by Luis MartinezThis Dear-Bought Land by Jean Lee Latham"Sunday" by Father Frederick William FaberJOIN 2500+ MEN READING SERIOUS, YET ACCESSIBLE ESSAYS ON VIRTUE, CULTURE, AND LIVING WELL Produced by Saint Kolbe Studios

    1h 2m

  8. MAR 5

    The Value of Catholic Imagination in Forming Young Men w/ Dr. Mark Adderley

    Mark Adderley is an English convert to Catholicism, high school literature teacher, and author of a 10-book Catholic adventure series for boys. In this episode, he traces his unlikely path from militant atheism to the Church through Arthurian legend, C.S. Lewis, and the power of story. In This Episode, We Cover: How Mark went from the Church of England, to atheist, to convicted Catholic through the legend of King Arthur and the Screwtape LettersWhy a well-formed imagination is essential for genuine faith and virtueHow to form sons through story: reading aloud, Saturday movies, poetry, and classic literatureThe fruit of intentional fatherhood: raising children who are still Catholic as adultsThe origin and purpose of the McCracken adventure series for Catholic boys in 6th–10th gradeChapters: 00:00: Introduction & Meet Mark Adderley02:40: From England to America: King Arthur and Graduate School06:05: From Atheist to Catholic: C.S. Lewis and the Screwtape Letters16:25: Why Imagination Matters More Than Data22:07: Forming Sons Through Story: Movies, Poetry, and Reading Aloud29:46: The Fruit: Four Sons, Three Families, One Seminarian37:25: "Stabs of Joy": How Catholicism Magnifies the Beautiful47:53: We're Not Raising Children, We're Raising Adults56:40: The Birth of the McCracken Series01:09:14: Why Catholic Boys Need Catholic FictionJOIN 2500+ MEN READING SERIOUS, YET ACCESSIBLE ESSAYS ON VIRTUE, CULTURE, AND LIVING WELL: https://fraternus.org/sword-and-spade/ Resources Mentioned: The McCracken Adventure Series by Mark AdderleyThe Once and Future King by T.H. WhiteThe Screwtape Letters by C.S. LewisLe Morte d'Arthur by Sir Thomas MaloryForbidden IslandProduced by Saint Kolbe Studios

    1h 15m
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Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
13 Ratings

About

The Sword&Spade podcast is about...

Information

  • Creator
    Jason Craig
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    17
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Jason Craig

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