LOOPcast Free-For-All: Retreat Recap, Rerum Novarum, And Behind "The Deep"

We're not live. And we're not live. We're not live. We are coming to you from the past. We want to make sure that we had something to accompany with you on Labor Day. We are off for Labor Day. Hopefully, no one is laboring today, but if you are, because some people have to, we'll give you a little bit of entertainment. The hope for this episode is, it's just Erika and I, by the way, and welcome back to the LOOPcast. Um, brought to you by The Loop, every American Catholic's favorite newsletter.

The goal is just kind of have a hangout, a chat. We just went on a fantastic corporate retreat. I saw some people commenting, like, why is it secret? Why is this? It's like, I mean, it's not secret per se. It's just, you know, we don't want to give away a location, whatever. Um, so we went on this fantastic retreat. It was, uh, so Kelsey, we did an interview with the president, which was fantastic. I feel like I got to know her a lot better there.

We got to hang out with her there in person. I got a good sense of future of the organization. You know, we got big plans ahead, that kind of thing. Maybe we can reveal some stuff, not everything, but excited about that. We actually were told to meditate upon Rerum Novarum, which feels very appropriate for Labor Day.

Can I just say something that was really fun about that interview? I was talking to one of our colleagues about this yesterday, but she said, you know how some people who were in religious life, they don't really talk about it? Like, that was a period of their life, and they've kind of, like, moved on, and they don't really, like, bring it up in conversation. Kelsey just, like, leads with it. She's like, I was a nun. Is that a thing?

Yeah, like, I... I don't know enough ex-cons, I guess. Not a lot of ex-cons, but Kelsey just, like, led with it, and what is more, like, Dominican, Nashville Dominican sister than, I'm going to lead a corporate retreat, and we're going to read Rerum Novarum and study it, and historical content. It was great. Yeah, I don't know. We have an ex-con. We're housing an ex-con for a little bit longer before she goes off to Oxford, but yeah, there was a, I had a funny moment, too, during this retreat, because it was awesome, and it was spiritual, and we had, shout out to our chaplain.

I don't know if we can name, not name. I'm a huge fan of his, but we had a chaplain lead it. He gave talks about faith, hope, and love. It was awesome. We read Ram Navarro, and we reflected. We received the sacraments. It was great.

And I was like, I'm at the age now. I don't know if it's the kids, but I was like, this is just about the greatest thing ever. I don't know if I just wasn't at a level of maturity before. I'm like, we really need to focus on business. We really need to, like, plan. We need to plot and scheme the world. We need to go do something extreme. No, I've got a little of that in me, yeah, yeah. And now I'm just like, being able to just chill and pray and talk about great ideas was, like, the greatest thing ever.

So, I don't know if this is a mark of maturity for myself, but I was very appreciative for it. You've arrived, Pogo. Yes, so we're going to get into all these topics in depth, but before we do... I got something to tell you guys about. I'm actually really excited. So, we know a few people that were part of this production. It's called Triumph of Heart, and I'll read what they want me to read. I also want to add a little bit of personal note, too, because we got to meet some people who were part of this, but in Humanity's Darkest Hour, One Man Shown with Hope, in the award-winning feature film Triumph of Heart, St.

Maximilian Kolbe enters a starvation bunker alongside nine condemned men and forges a brotherhood of hope in the darkest place on Earth. Distributed in partnership with the Augustan Institute, EWTN Studios, and Relevant Radio, this is a film unlike any you've seen before. Witness St. Colby's story on the big screen, watch the powerful trailer, and get your tickets now at www.triumphofheart.com. In the link below, that is www.triumphofheart.com.

So, we actually got to go to Courage Under Fire. That is where we did the interviews with Harrison, with Matt Walsh, with Michael Knowles, and with Father Mike Schmitz, which was a fantastic event all around, and they showed a private screening that was not finished, so it was not fully finished, but they were screening this, that my producer, Simon, who helps out of this show and does a ton of creative things here, got to see, and he had a classmate who actually worked on the film.

And she was telling a little bit about it. They were in Poland. I mean. I don't know if you, if people don't know about St. Maximilian Kolbe at this point, I don't know how it's possible, if you're a regular listener of this, but insane, powerful story. What was the first martyr of charity?

Yeah, the first martyr of charity. This was cool. And on our retreat, we got to go, providentially, I think, to the National Shrine of St. Maximilian Kolbe, and it was always, it's always just an amazing story, no matter how many times I hear. The story of his choice, the story of his life, too, because it wasn't just, I mean, most people know him for the way he died as a martyr of charity. He took the place of one of the men selected for starvation, who broke down crying, saying, I have a wife and children, what will become of them?

And Colby steps out of line, and miraculously, the SS officer accepts his exchange, and he takes this on. Most people know that story, but his entire life is... It is astonishing. Like, he would have been a saint. I think the Franciscan who was giving the talk is like, he could have been a saint just based on the heroic virtue of his life, and then you cap it off with the martyrdom. Really amazing. I'd encourage everyone to go and read the story.

Yeah, the trailer is awesome, too. It looks super high quality. Yeah, the trailer is really well made. It's not like, you know, sometimes you have Christian movies come out, like, uh, I'm going to have to grit my teeth through this one, artistically speaking, but not this one. I am excited to watch the whole thing. There has been some heat lately. A lot of cinematography talent has migrated to tell some cool Christian stories.

So, super inspiring. Shout out Maximilian Kolbe. Shout out the people who made this film. So, go see it. Go see it. I cannot emphasize that enough. Go see it. So, Erika, this is the chill episode. We get to hang out. We love hanging out. We love hanging out. So, I guess we start. We came into the retreat early so that we could pull off that interview with Kelsey. We did. We tried to. I tried to get there early. It was in a groovy hotel room that looked like it was made in the 70s, and we put up all our equipment, and then Simon discovers about 15 minutes in that your microphone is muted.

Yeah. Yeah. People in the chat are like, we can't hear Erika, and none of us are watching the chat because we're in this live situation, and we're with Kelsey. Yeah, so eventually my sound came back, and I was able to contribute something, maybe. Yeah. It was epic. That's just how we roll on Livecast. That's how we roll, and immediately, visually, I mean, Kelsey is towering over us. I mean, she is, you know what they say, like camera tricks, like it makes you look taller than you actually are.

It's like, no, Kelsey is that tall. She has got to be the tallest nun, possibly, in America. I know she chose St. Joan of Arc. Very appropriate. Yeah. I mean, she looks like, yeah. She looks like Viking Valhalla. She was born for this, and it was so neat to just hear from her, and I love her story. She's now going to be one of the leading voices in Washington, D.C., by the grace of God, but she comes from such a humble place.

Her dad was a house painter. Her mom was a teacher. I was hearing a little more about her dad on our ride back to the airport. I ended up in her car, and just salt of the earth, Wyoming. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Very, very much, and how her mom, for fun every year, rides horseback across the state of Wyoming, some kind of branding thing with cattle. I'm not sure what that was, but it was fun to just hear, like, this is Americana.

That is where she comes from. Coupled with her You know, very impressive Dominican formation as a sister, because I think I asked her at one point in the interview, I'm like, so who are the main influences on your formation while you're in the convent? And she just starts dropping all these, like, obscure theological names and well-known theological names and just Dominican saints. And which we didn't prep her, by the way. It was all in her head, just came out. So, talk about someone who I'm very, very excited to follow and to the privilege of working under.

So, that was... That was a special moment, I think. Yeah, it was definitely one of those things where, I mean, I have been here for five years, and it was pretty unthinkable that Brian would ever not be the president of CatholicVote. I mean, he just had done it for so long.

And what a wild ride, like the last year, two years have been, in which we have a Pope from Chicago, you know, Trump wins the election after it was bleak there in 2020, and this situation arises where Brian has the opportunity to be the Vatican ambassador, which is just unbelievable.

And, I mean, when something like that pops, I mean, you got to go. So, I think it was one of those things where... Brian, obviously very charismatic, has a lot of talents, politically savvy. So, it was one of those things where it was, okay, if he's leaving, who could put all these combinations together where politically savvy, but also practices their faith really well and understands their faith and is able to bridge the gap, and Brian was just special in that way.

I think he's going to do a great job, and so there's a lot of uncertainty for a little while around here. It's just hard to believe. I never would have imagined, I think, a lot of people in that position, and for Kelsey to come along. Not just with the theological formation, which, as you said, she doesn't shy away from it, but then also the experience with EWTN, being overseas, working on news teams, coming here to help build something special, too. I mean, just the fact that she even came here is pretty crazy, and then having her basically in-house to pick from was something else.

Right. And so, during this retreat, I've been on a lot of retreats with CatholicVote. We do about two a year, and because most of us are remote, so it's the only time we actually get together, and it's good because we have a lot of things we've got to figure out in person, and it was obvious to me during this retreat, I just came in with a really open mind to see, because I wasn't there for the one before where Brian kind of had his farewell, because I was on paternity leave.

So, this is my first one fully run by Kelsey and the HR team, which we have a great HR team. And it was like... CatholicVote is being run by a nun, but not in a bad way. No, in the best possible way. In the best possible way. I was like, we are under the, every presidential candidate has their, or when they have their administration, they have their charisms, and I was like, we are being run by someone that is so spiritually dense and serious, but at the same time, clearly intellectually formidable.

I mean, I think, didn't she defer? Enrollment, in order to name law school, to enter the convent. She's no slouch. I think, too, I was meditating on this during the retreat, the fact that... You know, I'm not a feminist, but the fact that she is a woman, and her formation as a nun, I mean, in Nashville, they emphasize so much. My best friends in college, actually, both of them became Nashville Dominicans and are still in there. Sister Anna Rae, shout out.

Sister Alexandra Prosser, shout out. And they emphasize so much spiritual motherhood. And I really felt that with her leadership at the retreat, that she has that charism of spiritual motherhood, and not only for the employees of CatholicVote, which is a wonderful thing to experience as an employee, but more so for the American people, and talking about reclaiming, bringing America back, recalling America to its original. Greatness, original constitution, but also its calling to grow into that role as a Christian nation, if I dare say such a thing.

Dr. Larry Arnn, are you listening? Yeah, the feminine genius that she will bring to that as a spiritual mother, there's so much promise there, and it's something different, but also, especially when motherhood is under so much attack, like people are literally erasing the word mother from our medical institutions.

It is a beautiful moment. Yeah, she is just such, I feel like she has lived eight lives. There are people like that. You are like, wait, and then you were in Iraq? Right, what? Oh, and Nigeria? I did not even know about the year in Nigeria when Boko Haram was coming in. She was a missionary in Nigeria. Crazy. Oh, yeah, I did not know about that. Yeah, I did not know about her high school team mascot, the camels.

But what she asked us to meditate upon, brainstorm on, think about was Ram Navaram. And so, obviously, massive encyclical, 1891. A lot of change going on in the world, and so we all read it, and we had some smaller group discussions. We had a large group discussion about it, and Eric, I know this is very wheelhouse for you, but I had not read it since college, so I had to reacquaint, and if I could, a basic summary.

There was, at the time, a lot of abuses going on, specifically in regards to indentured servitude, labor, basically capital taking advantage of labor, unsafe working conditions, children working, really being dominated, this lower class being dominated by capital. And Karl Marx just came out with some ideas. Like, here's a solution. Here's some solutions, and that's kind of circulating around. And so you get Pope Leo XIII.

Who comes out with this encyclical addressing? I think the beginning of it is basically like, I know that this is already understood at the time that the working condition is unsustainable. Here are my solutions, basically. These are the church's solutions to what's going on. And it's funny, what surprised you about this? And in pond reading, again, hilarious. I'm sure everyone at the time was like, yes, he's going to finally be like, communism is the answer. We're going to get rid of the bourgeois.

And the working class is the proletariat. It's going to be awesome. And the book of Acts will have come true, and all things will be in common. Yeah, that's what the Pope's going to do. But then the first thing he does is like, private property is an essential right to humanity. And we're like, what? What a curveball. Didn't see that coming.

So, yeah, the private property talk was hysterical, that that was the first thing that came up. And I'm sure people reading it at the time were like, what do you mean, doc? And just unequivocally, socialism is evil. Communism is evil.

It's contrary to human nature. Contrary to human nature. And as such, yeah, there's such an insightful line. And you got to remember, like, we've all lived through, well, the 20th century, right? Like, that's in the past for us. And the evils of communism, the receipts are in, as it were. But he's writing this, you know, he's writing this almost 30 years before the October Revolution in Russia. And he sees it already. And he says, this is what's going to end up happening with socialism.

It is going to end up hurting. The exact population it purports to be saving, and that is the working class. They are going to be the first ones to suffer under socialism, and I mean, it all came true, right? The great Persians. It did, and I also thought on the private property, Mark, which, if I remember correctly, it's basically like private property is...

It's essential, but property becomes kind of a manifestation of your labor. And so, instead of wage, you're owning in the form of money, your property is basically all the hours that you worked or all the labor that you poured in, and is now yours. And to destroy that would be destroying your labor. And I thought about that in light of a lot of the There's protests going on as of recent, where it's like, well, just destroy these businesses to prove a point.

Insurance is going to cover it, right? All insurance is going to cover it. Yeah, smash that window, steal that stuff. And it was so nice to hear this again, because I feel like everyone is kind of like, this is so counterproductive, and of course, when the riots are over, then who leaves the cities? All the people with money, and then it's just the people that can't afford to leave are left with no businesses, and it's all smashed.

It was nice to hear that from a pope, again, I mean, from a flashback there. So, it was kind of like, this was what was put forward to address it, and he does address a lot of the abuses of capital, by the way, just unfettered, unchecked, laissez-faire. Agreed, the envy, right, just terrible. And he also suggested that the church has the answers to this, that the church has solutions to this. Yeah, not only that, but he says the church can diagnose the problem.

The church not only proposes the remedy, To the problem, but also affects the remedy in society, that the church is called to be active in the political sphere, in the polis, right, in the community, making sure, ensuring that human dignity is preserved, ensuring that government is...

...is serving its purpose, which is the common good and the flourishing of not only individuals, but human society as a whole. And I think to all the political kind of quietism that we've seen, much to the frustration of politically active Catholics that, oh, you know, somehow it's holier to retreat and to just, you know, we're just going to go build our little, like, Catholic commune, and we're all going to pray and go to the Latin Mass and veil and stuff. And, I mean, I'm not like...

I'm not dunking on that, the Latin mass at all, but that's been like a thing, and somehow we don't have to be involved. We don't have to dirty our hands in things like school boards, or local politics, or even voting in a presidential election, because the candidates aren't, you know, St. Pius X, so. But as if that is somehow holier than engaging. As if that's holy. Yeah. So, I think the main problem is that there's a school of thought or a strain in society that it's holier to just completely remove.

And to not be involved at all, as opposed to getting your hands dirty. But then the opposite end in vice would be making politics your religion. Uh-huh. And so now it's like, okay, how do we get in the middle? And yeah, fortunately, shout out again to our chaplain for this retreat, who kept encouraging us of our mission, like for people reminded, it's to help every Catholic to live out the truths of their faith in public life.

So, it was cool going back on that, and then to think about, and we discussed ad nauseum, many of the problems that we face, and that Pope Leo XIV had the grace, basically, to be like, I'm choosing this name because we are addressing similar problems that Pope Leo XIII dealt with at the time. And a little bit nerve-wracking, because if you think about the century that came after this encyclical. It wasn't great. A couple of world wars. Yeah. What was the Robert Royal in Martyrs of the 20th Century?

He talks about how there were more Catholic martyrs in that century with the rise of fascism, the rise of socialism. There were more Catholic martyrs in that century than in all previous centuries combined. Yeah. Including the very bad 2nd century and 4th century. It's like, yeah, it's really a little sobering. Yeah, I mean, because technology was just so... And then it makes you think, I mean, technology advancing super rapidly now. I mean, there's all the kind of, I don't know if it's intimidation.

Over what is AI makes capable, and whether or not that pans out or doesn't pan out. Or bioterrorism. Yeah, bioterrorism, certainly. I mean, there's drones and everything. Like, could you imagine someone like having to think of 1800s? Yeah, there's gonna be drones one day. Just like drop on you. Crazy. I mean, if Stalin or Hitler had had drones, like, oh my gosh, game over. Yeah, yeah, so bad. Yeah, I mean, we had a great I had a great small group. We weren't we were in different small groups, but One of the questions we were asked, you know, Rerum Novarum means new things.

And so, one of the questions we were asked is, looking at our society today, you know, we gave the background on what were the new things Leo XIII was looking at in 1891. What are the new things Pope Leo XIV is facing today, and trying to tease that out. We do a lot of that on Moocast. Like, that's kind of what we do, talking about it. But yeah, we talked about, in our group, the speed of communication. Just the fact that the Pope Pope Leo XIII writes this encyclical.

It gets copied on a printing press and might make it to America three months later, two months later. Well, now, Pope Leo XIV says something, and 15 seconds later, it is on Twitter, right? And there are videos, and the speed of that communication, it seems. Beyond all imagining, the AI economy, really big, which you touched on. We are talking about that. The revolution in how we work and jobs. The employer-employee relationship when there is AI inserted in the middle. What is the value?

Talked about. How our brains are morphed by our use of social media, screen time, using things like chat, TPT, perhaps companion open AI, how the human mind and the way we think is being changed as a real challenge to the Holy Father.

And also just education, because I think Pope Leo XIII in Rerum Novarum talks about how people are more and more educated, are more educated for him than they were for previous pontiffs. And now, I was bringing up the possibility that... Pope Leo XIV is actually looking at less educated humans. Like, we're regressing a little bit. We've lost the classical education. I mean, Jeremy Tate's so good on this, right? Like, in everything he writes about it. Yeah, so these are all pressing new things.

Do you think we're smarter than someone, more educated than someone in 1890, whatever, 1891? I mean, there's all kinds of qualifications there. So, you know, for the average laborer in a factory, like a shoe factory in 1891, we're definitely better educated, right? Like, more people can read, sort of, like, depends. But compared to even, like, 50 years ago?

I don't know if I'd say that's where maybe, I don't know where I would draw the exact line. I don't think we're... It's hard, because another point is like, in the Catholic Church... You have to define educated, too. Yeah, you have to define educated. Like, as far as access to information goes, we are so far ahead of anyone who's come before us in a way, but it's, are we able to handle it? Like, how do we, have we learned to think?

And you think about all the, you know, statistics about nobody reads. We don't do full books anymore. We skim articles. We don't do the deep thinking that would be required of someone who was, you know, at a Harvard or a Yale a hundred years ago, right?

I mean, just go back and read, if you just go back and read stuff that was written in the fifties. Yeah, like the prose. The speeches, like the political speeches, yeah. Cognition. I wouldn't say that we're... We have more cognitive abilities. Now. Now. More access to information. More access to information. So, does that make you smarter? I guess it depends on what your definition of smarter is, but yeah, that is a sobering thought.

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So, we now, I guess we can't fully reveal going forward, you know, what are our plans here, basically. What's Catholic Votes? role in all of this, like the future that Pope Leo needs to address, that we need to bring to Americans. Americans, period, but it's specifically American Catholics, American Christians. So, we have good plans. Again, I'm like in a weird, like, stuff is going to be coming out. I guess that makes me think. Because I can speak more on what we do here with the LOOPcast between me, you, and Josh.

So, I'd say one thing that I've really enjoyed as a creative challenge has been doing these monologues for you, like the deep. Yeah, the deep. And I wonder if people have been watching, like are curious how the sausage is made on that one.

What's your process for writing these, yeah? Yeah, I mean, that's been such an amazing opportunity, I think, for all of us, and I'm the one reading the monologues on The Deep, but for everyone watching, yeah, it is a full team effort, and so as far as ideation of, okay, what topics are we going to cover? What are the titles that we ought to cover?

We do a brainstorming session. You, me, Simon, a couple other colleagues. We'll chime in as well, and look at the trends, but also look at the broader question, really the Rerum Novarum question, right? Our conviction is that, like Pope Leo XIII said, the church has the remedy to these ills, and so it is not just a matter of calling out the ills and critiquing society, but it is diagnosing where are these pain points, why are we so unhappy as a culture, why did we lose transcendence, and then proposing the church's answer, the church's understanding of what is going on as a way of Of healing and building.

So, we really try and take those two elements into account when we're planning these episodes. Yeah. Sometimes Pogo suggests a topic, and I'm like, what are you talking about? Like, dead internet theory? That one's coming out one of these weeks, and I'm just like, wait, what? And then I go down this rabbit hole, and my whole life has changed, and start digging bomb shelters in the backyard. I'm like, kids, we're just like, rabbit ear television only, and no, just kidding. But it was close.

It was close. I'm like that guy in Always Sunny in Philadelphia. I have red strings behind me. Always, always now. Thank you, Pogo, for transforming my... I am now Tinfoil Erika. Yeah, it's like the meme of Dwayne Wade throwing the alley-oop to LeBron meme. It's just like me tossing to Erika. It's like, okay, do something awesome with this. It's like, bam, then I get a half-hour monologue coming back. It's been a journey with that one. Yeah, so we do a lot of research.

I mean, like hours and hours of research, and then scripting. The script goes through multiple eyes because we want to make sure that... We're being accurate, but we're also presenting it in a way that is understandable, yes, entertaining, also edifying, all those good things. So, it's a long process. Simon is our video editor, and he's a genius. The script can be good, but if the video is bad, no one's going to stick around and hear the message. So, the marriage of a really solid script with massive editing, wow, muscle that is.

It's great, and it's fun, too, because I record them. Simon's watching me, and he'll stop me and be like, can you do that again? Or, that sentence did not work. We've got to rewrite it. So, it is a long process, but it is really satisfying. I remember interviewing Simon for the editor role, and I was like, what do you do for fun? He is like, well, I am reading this book by Dostoevsky. I am like, what?

What do you do for fun? He is my guide. Dostoevsky. I was like, wait a second. We might have something cooking here. But, yeah, I think it is an interesting... It is interesting. We do not do too many just random musings episodes. Everything is very intentionally planned, but I feel an internal struggle between making things on the internet and then also being frustrated with things being on the internet or feeling like it is a waste of time. I feel like there is a lot on the internet that is just like… Short-form content you see for 10 seconds, and you will never remember again.

Maybe it is not even a real person. Yeah, well, I mean, who knows at this point, right? So, yeah, I guess I am thinking, like, there is going to be... I'm going to prepare a little bit. There's going to be some changes to the LOOPcast. I'm not sure exactly how that materializes, but the goal always is to maximize people's talents, and Josh is the vice president of the organization, so we've been lucky to have as much time with him as we do, and I would like to involve him in some way.

And I want to get to the core of, for this channel specifically, like what is the greatest value that we can provide? What's the best pound for pound we can provide with how much time goes in? And then what comes back out, and that it's valuable, it's memorable, like even for the last deep that you did, is like, this is going to be a fantastic resource for someone that has to enter into potentially a contentious conversation, kind of, I feel like we are asking people to re-examine a lot of these kind of third rail issues, and I think they become more third rail as people get raised in them, like for example, the fact that we have two men that are entitled to...

Using surrogacy to have a child. Yeah, child trafficking, essentially. But of course, we're using language that isn't used in AP Stylebook, or you know what I mean, like in medical language. We just had someone resign from the CDC that used pregnant people. But if you don't actually, I think it's a tough needle there, too, because you want to provide, why do you want to provide correction, or why do you want to provide information? And it really shouldn't be your core, at the end of the day, at least I think.

I don't want it to be because I just want to dunk on someone. I want it to be because it's the truth, and I'd like to deliver it in a way that starts a conversation, that starts discovery, not just to be like, oh, I'm dunking on the libs. I don't know if it's because I'm getting older or whatever. I just have less and less. That actually is kind of disgusting to me. I can't watch a lot of it anymore, and I just know it's because a lot of those big accounts are just taking money from the RNC.

And then the verse. I mean, that's clearly true. Go look at, like, MAGA. Anti-MAGA land, like they just cash in checks on, you know, look how stupid they look out, whatever. And I don't know, that's just hard for me, because we have to exist in a space where, yeah, we want to be entertaining, yeah, we want to have fun, but also we want to provide something that is a service to people that tune in. A hundred percent. Yeah, and I thought about that a lot, because I never thought I would be on a podcast.

Like, my training's in philosophy, like, I'm going to translate something out of Latin, you know. So, I think for me, like, I try and reflect on this a lot, like, am I out there just spouting words, like you said, dunking on people and feeling set, like that little dopamine hit that like, ooh, I really coined that phrase well. It is, it's a dopamine hit. But constantly having to ask, are the words that I'm bringing to the internet And that, you know, a few hundred people, a few thousand people are going to hear, are they furthering the cause of truth?

Are they necessary to speak? Right? Because sometimes it's not necessary to say something. I think in the case of gay parenting, it's absolutely necessary. And why is that? Because there is a real world consequence that is being borne by the most marginalized people among us, which are... Children, right? That they can't speak for themselves, and for future generations of Americans who are going to come after us. So, for me, if the deep, if LOOPcast can serve that end and help further the truth, and also just encourage Catholics and Christians and people of goodwill that, like, you're not crazy.

You deserve a seat at the table. You're not You're not hateful. Like, you shouldn't be pushed out of the conversation because you believe that the best place for a child to grow up is with their married mother and father, right? Like, that you actually, as Pope Leo says in Rehoboam, like, you have the remedy.

And I think we had a book a couple years ago I worked on called How Catholics Can Save America. Like, it's okay to say that, and here's why. Yeah, for sure, because... Yeah, like, the funny thing about all this is, like, I go home to my wife and two kids, and I'm, you know, we're going through potty training right now. You are too in new, right? Yeah, like, you are in the thick of it, man. Oh, potty training.

I mean, fertile. So, there's a joy to that because I get just to put everything away, and that I just need to, you know. Talk about touching grass. Potty training is too natural. Clean up some real messes, if you know what I mean. But, yeah, like, I guess we never.

What I love about the show, and maybe why I have that tension, is because I don't feel very different than many of the people that listen to the show or the community. Like, I've met a lot of you. You live the exact same life that I live, and we just spend a lot of time.

So, one thing that has been huge, and I think we are going to take advantage more of on this show, is that we have a new team now. When I started, we did not have a new team. When we started this podcast, we did not really have a new team. Yeah, it was like me and Stephen Herriot. Exactly right. Who is great. There is no diss on him, but we have a new team now, which is huge.

And so, I want to take advantage of that. But, maybe, I think it is helpful to have you. It is helpful to have Josh. Because I'm able to bounce what I have to say off of other real people, and I think at the end of the day, if normal people don't feel comfortable enough to just be normal online, then there's a vacuum filled by people that will just do and say anything. I mean, Gavin and Newsom is going to be a great example of that.

The goal of CatholicVote, of the podcast, to inspire Catholics in America to live out the truths of their faith in public life, stamp it. Yeah. So, that's the goal of this show. Really appreciate everyone that listens and the audience, and that being said, because we're doing the deep and because the LOOPcast is going to have some changes, if you guys have good ideas of things that you like about the show that you don't like about the show that you might want to hear more of, you think would be useful, send them our way.

We're kind of... We're at a period now where there's going to be an evolution of some kind, and I want to offer that up to, I want to condition people for that because I think changes, any change we're going to make is going to disappoint some people, unfortunately.

But I think, I just want people to know. Our sincerity to want to provide the best service and product that we can, and whatever we do, we really believe that we're doing it for that purpose, and to just support us in what we attempt to do next, and just stick with us, and I just really appreciate that. It's going to be great. Further, deeper, higher up and further in, I think is it. And I'm going to put my plug. Can I give my plug for what I'd like to see?

So, my favorite part of the whole, like, Tom goes to the Pope Leo thing with the pizza. Can we just get Tom, like, going around trying pizza all over the country? I'm currently in contact with a plumber, and I do think it's going to have to become... I mean, who isn't in contact with a plumber? True. It is potty training season. But I am in contact with a plumber, and I want every Tom in the Wild episode to include a rating of some kind.

So, I think it's going to be whatever his favorite gas station snack is, or gas station snack combination, or lunch places. And it's going to be all over the country, and across many different spectrums. So, I'm going to find something. Something will be rated on the boom scale from every episode, so don't worry about that. I should have done it at inauguration. I don't know what it would have been. But, oh, I could have read something from the Hard Rock that I watched.

Yeah, Hard Rock, you see? Yeah, something like that. Yeah, that was something. Yeah, Tom the Log coming. If you guys got good ideas or, yeah, concepts for that, I am working on them. We have some moving parts, so it's been a little slower than I think, but it's going to be awesome. I can't wait to hang out with a plumber. It's going to be sick.

So, yeah, and then I'll end this episode with our prayer. I don't know, what would the prayer for Monday be? Rosie, do you have a good recommendation for us? What do we have for September 1st? Let's see what Rosie's got. Someone find me a good prayer. The Anima Christi, my favorite. That's actually my favorite prayer. I love Anima Christi. Let's do it. Okay. Yeah, let me freestyle. Put the pressure on me. I tried to memorize it in Latin.

But I'm not there yet. I don't know. Let's hear it in Latin. No, I can't do it in Latin. You're going to put me on the spot. All right, well, I know Diana McCristy. And I hope you guys are enjoying your Labor Day. I hope you guys have a great time. One there. In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Soul of Christ, sanctify me. Body of Christ, save me. Blood of Christ, inebriate me. Water from the side of Christ, wash me. Passion of Christ, strengthen me. Oh, good Jesus, hear me. Within your wounds, hide me. Separated from you, let me never be. From the evil one, protect me. At the hour of my death, call me. And close to you, bid me that with your saints and angels, I be praising you forever and ever. Amen. St. Thomas More, St. Fidelis, Our Lady of Guadalupe, pray for us. Have a great Labor Day, guys, and we'll catch you Wednesday for a live show.