A Drink With a Friend

It’s time for a new season of Drink, and Tsh has a new-old mission: to really embody the show’s title. Pour yourself a drink and get ready for conversations with friends, old and new. All are welcome.

* Tsh’s newsletter: The Commonplace

* Tsh’s books, trips, & Rule of Life

* Recommended reads

* Become a supporting subscriber

* Buy a round of drinks

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thecommon.place/subscribe

In this last episode of the season, Tsh talks with Zack Kibodeaux of the band Blue Water Highway. They talk about the objective beauty of art, what it means to make a living as a working artist, and how to navigate secular art spaces as a Catholic Christian. Plus, the episode ends with a sampling of his band’s delightful work! It’s a great conversation to tie up this season — as always, more episodes will be coming this fall.

* Host: Tsh Oxenreider / X

* Guest: Zack Kibodeaux of the band Blue Water Highway

* Blue Water Highway on Patreon

* Create Your Rule of Life

* Buy a round of drinks

* Recommended reads

* CS Lewis’ An Experiment in Criticism

* Masters of the Air

* How (& Why) I’m Taking a Summer Screen Sabbatical

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thecommon.place/subscribe

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

* Buy a round of drinks

* Recommended reads

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thecommon.place/subscribe

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

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thecommon.place/subscribe

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

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thecommon.place/subscribe

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

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thecommon.place/subscribe

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

* Buy a round of drinks

* Recommended reads

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thecommon.place/subscribe

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

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thecommon.place/subscribe

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

* Buy a round of drinks

* Recommended reads

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thecommon.place/subscribe

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

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thecommon.place/subscribe

You are a tree. You are also not a tree. You are on a journey. You are also not on a journey. We use metaphors all the time to describe life, and funnily enough, so does the Bible. Joy Clarkson unpacks why we use metaphors, and she and Tsh also get into why we need to be rooted — and open to change.

* Host: Tsh Oxenreider

* Guest: Joy Clarkson

* Joy’s new book, You Are a Tree

* Create Your Rule of Life

* Buy a round of drinks

* Recommended reads

* Comment on this episode (for Commonplace subscribers)

* LAMY Fountain Pens

* Michael & Michelle

* p.s. Here's the previous episode, which bypassed quite a few podcast feeds!

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thecommon.place/subscribe

We’re starting a new season with a few changes — Tsh Oxenreider unpacks what you can expect this spring by way of the season’s theme: rootedness. What does it mean to know who you are, whose you are, and where you belong? How do we become more rooted in an ever-digitized world?

* Host: Tsh Oxenreider

* Create Your Rule of Life

* Ascend: The Great Books Podcast

* Young Heretics (another good but unmentioned resource for unpacking old texts)

* Buy a round of drinks

* Recommended reads

* Come to Greece this summer! (just a few spots left)

* Comment on this episode (for Commonplace subscribers)

* Send an email: [email protected]

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thecommon.place/subscribe

In this final chat of the year, Seth and Tsh work through a few of her end-of-the-year questions—and you’re invited to do the same. They’re tougher than they initially seem!

* Hosts: authors Seth Haines and Tsh Oxenreider

* Buy a round of drinks

* Recommended reads

* Tsh’s end-of-the-year reflection questions

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thecommon.place/subscribe

‘Tis the season to have more options than possible to read, watch, and listen to. Authors Seth Haines and Tsh Oxenreider share what they're currently imbibing in this department, along with what's in their queue for the holidays.

* Hosts: authors Seth Haines and Tsh Oxenreider

* Buy a round of drinks

* Tsh's 2023 Holiday Gift Guide

* Six Reads for Advent on Tsh's Substack newsletter

* Winter Fire, by Ryan Whitaker Smith

* Christmas Karol, by Faith Moore

* Perelandra, by C.S. Lewis

* This Hideous Strength, by C.S. Lewis

* Ben Rector's holiday playlist

* Louis Armstrong & Ella Fitzgerald

* Pray with C.S. Lewis on Advent

* It's a Wonderful Life

* All Creatures Great and Small on PBS

* Vikings on Hulu

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thecommon.place/subscribe

Whether you're a seasoned Advent adherent or a barely-even-heard-of-it curious onlooker, Advent really is for everybody. Writer Tsh Oxenreider shares why Advent, as well as the rest of the liturgical calendar, really is a gift to us, even in (especially in?) our insanely busy and information-packed world. She also shares a brief introduction to the season, as well as a few ideas on how to get started (sharing an excerpt from her Advent book!).

* Host: author Tsh Oxenreider

* Tsh’s Advent book, Shadow & Light

* Buy a round of drinks

* Recommended reads

* Tsh’s 2023 Gift Guide

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thecommon.place/subscribe

Why hope? Because we have no other choice. A few years ago, Amber Haines entered a season of pain and despair when she resigned from her role as church curate and walked out those doors for the last time. Since then, she and Seth have been learning that hope requires a recognition of the deep-down things. Writers Seth, Amber, & Tsh Oxenreider talk about why we HAVE to hope, even when (especially when?) things are bleak.

* Guest: Amber Haines

* Hosts: authors Seth Haines and Tsh Oxenreider

* Seth & Amber’s new book, The Deep Down Things: Practices for Growing Hope in Times of Despair

* Buy a round of drinks

* Recommended reads

* Merch

* Go to Greece with Tsh

* Why We’re Required to Find Beauty

* Orthodox Farmhouse Brewery

* Patty Griffin: her self-titled 2019 album

* God of the Garden, by Andrew Peterson

* Ask a question! Email [email protected]

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thecommon.place/subscribe

Social media isn't great for us, neither individually nor collectively. Know what's better? Substack. Not just for writers or creators — for readers and listeners, too! That means you. Writers Seth Haines and Tsh Oxenreider share why they dig this bright spot on the internet, and why you should, too. It's not perfect, but it’s doing a good thing.

* Hosts: authors Seth Haines and Tsh Oxenreider

* Buy a round of drinks

* Recommended reads

* Merch

* Go to Greece with Tsh!

* Buy Seth’s new book!

* Over the Field, by Hadden Turner

* La Beef, by Anonymous

* The Blue Scholar, Nate Marshall

* Flak Photo, by Andy Adams

* School of the Unconformed, by Ruth Gaskovski

* A Pilgrim in Metropolis, by B. Christof Wachtel

* Hearthstone Fables, by Kristin Haakenson

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thecommon.place/subscribe

We officially live in a world with AI, like it or not. It’s been around quite awhile, but its ubiquitous presence is escalating, and quickly. How shall we then live? Is there ethical space for AI? Writers Tsh Oxenreider and Seth Haines have thoughts.

* Hosts: authors Seth Haines and Tsh Oxenreider

* Buy a round of drinks

* Recommended reads

* Merch!

* Come see Tsh next Thursday, October 5 at Fabled Bookstore

* Tsh’s latest: First Light & Eventide

* Seth’s upcoming: The Deep-Down Things

* Ask Tsh & Seth a question! Email [email protected]

* Anna Tivel’s Outsiders: Live in a Living Room

* Joan Chittester’s The Rule of Benedict: A Spirituality for the 21st Century

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thecommon.place/subscribe

Why is adding beauty to our everyday lives worth the time and effort? Tsh Oxenreider talks with fellow writer Katy Carl about why the ongoing, noble pursuit of beauty (in its truest form) is essential for ALL of us. They also chat about grad school while raising kids, AI (of course), and other such sundry.

* Guest: Katy Carl

* Host: Tsh Oxenreider

* Katy's new book, Fragile Objects

* Tsh’s latest: First Light & Eventide

* Buy a round of drinks

* Recommended reads

* Merch!

* Mariane Moore’s poem, “I too dislike it”

* Katy’s essay on AI

* Middlemarch, by George Eliot

* Reading Adventure playlist

* Ask a question! Email [email protected]

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thecommon.place/subscribe

We’re back for a new season of chatting over drinks! Writers Tsh Oxenreider and Seth Haines discuss the old idea of Ignatian examen and how it applies to us moderns. Also, why morning and evening bookends are a great idea.

* Hosts: authors Seth Haines and Tsh Oxenreider

* Buy a round of drinks

* Recommended reads

* Merch!

* Tsh’s latest: First Light & Eventide

* Seth’s upcoming: The Deep-Down Things

* How to pray the examen  

* Scientifically proven benefits of gratitude

* “The Want of Peace” by Wendell Berry

* Rules of Civility, by Amor Towles

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thecommon.place/subscribe

No need to panic; the podcast isn’t ending! It's simply time for a summer break. In this episode, Seth and Tsh chat about some of their favorite finales: the last lines of books, the final songs on an album, the ultimate episodes in a TV series. What makes a good ending? And what helps us forgive a story's less-than-ideal finale?

Drink episodes will take a brief hiatus for some offline summer revelry, but never fear—episodes will pick back up again soon!

* Seth’s Newsletter & Website

* Tsh’s Newsletter & Website

* Pick up a round of drinks

* Our recommended reads

* The Observationalist, by Seth

* Pre-order Seth & Amber’s new book, The Deep Down Things

* Pre-order Tsh’s journal, First Light & Eventide

* Summer 2024: Go to Greece with Tsh!

* Damien Rice’s album, My Favorite Faded Fantasy  

* A Gentleman in Moscow and The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles

* Typhoon, Offerings 

* A River Runs Through It, by Norman Maclean

* Chuck (on Max and Amazon Prime)

* Battlestar Galactica (on Peacock)

* The Common Place, Vol. 5 Playlist 

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thecommon.place/subscribe

Stories (the good ones, anyway) tell us more than an entertaining tale—they tell us why the world is the way it is, as well as the way it should be. In this way, fiction is often more real than non-fiction. Everyone should read fiction, especially folks who want to know how the world works and how we're called to make it better. Seth & Tsh unpack why good stories do just that.

* Seth’s Newsletter & Website

* Tsh’s Newsletter & Website

* Pick up a round of drinks

* Our recommended reads

* The Observationalist, by Seth

* Pre-order Seth & Amber’s new book, The Deep Down Things

* Pre-order Tsh’s journal, First Light & Eventide

* The Old Man and the Sea, by Ernest Hemingway

* Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë

* Cloud Cuckoo Land, by Anthony Doerr

* The Pillars of the Earth, by Ken Follett

* It Can’t Happen Here, by Lewis Sinclair

* The Awakening of Miss Prim, by Natalia Sanmartin Fenollera

* Free class: The Rise & Fall of the Roman Republic

* Tsh’s essay on leaving Instagram, one year later

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thecommon.place/subscribe

Is reading good books, watching good movies, and preferring good art a matter of subjective taste or objective reasoning? And if it’s objective, does that mean there’s a wrong preference for these things? Even a …moral wrong? Tsh talks with one of her favorite current thinkers and writers, Joshua Gibbs, about what it means to wisely know the difference between mediocre, common, and uncommon things, and why it matters beyond mere taste that we love that which lasts.

* Love What Lasts, by Joshua Gibbs

* Joshua’s annual summer conference

* Joshua’s podcast, Proverbial

* Joshua’s blog for CiRCE, The Cedar Room

* Joshua’s articles on ChatGPT and terrible family films

* Tsh’s Newsletter & Website

* Pick up a round of drinks

* Recommended reads

* The Divine Comedy, by Dante Alighieri (plus Dorothy Sayers’ notes)

* The Once and Future King, by T.H. White

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thecommon.place/subscribe

Both Seth and Tsh's oldest children are graduating high school this month, and just like the cliché, they can't believe how fast time has flown. Here are a few things they'd tell themselves when they were younger and in the early, exhausting stage of parenting younger children.

* Seth: Newsletter | Website

* Tsh: Newsletter | Website

* Pick up a round of drinks

* Our recommended reads

* There’s ONE spot left for Ireland — will you claim it?

* Ted Lasso

* The Lord of the Rings trilogy (1, 2, 3) audiobook, narrated by Andy Serkis

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thecommon.place/subscribe

Continuing with (what the numbers say is) this show’s most popular series, in this episode, Seth shares more of why he became Catholic. If he could sum up a major reason why he and Amber led their whole family into the Church, it's this: matter matters. (…And again, don't worry, it's not to pressure you — Tsh and Seth and just telling their stories.)

* Seth: Newsletter | Website

* Tsh: Newsletter | Website

* Pick up a round of drinks

* Our recommended reads

* Why is Seth Catholic? Part 1

* Why is Tsh Catholic? Parts 1 & 2

* Seth’s essay in America Magazine

* The Songlines, by Bruce Chatwin

* Learning the Good Life, ed. by Jessica Hooten Wilson & Jacob Stratman

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thecommon.place/subscribe

We've reached a fever pitch with smartphones, and more and more people aren't sure what to do anymore with these computers in our pockets. Is it time to throw them in a river and "downgrade" to older school flip phones? Some folks are. Autumn Kern is one such person, and in this episode, she chats with Tsh about why she'll never go back. She makes the case that smartphones are turning us into gnostics, they're depleting us of our virtue, and they're depriving us of true community, instead giving us dopamine hits of a faux version of connection. The trade-off? A more beautiful life!

* Common House

* Autumn Kern’s podcast and YouTube channel

* Tsh: Newsletter | Website

* Pick up a round of drinks

* Recommended reads

* Come to Ireland with Tsh!

* Digital Minimalism, by Cal Newport

* The Machine Stops, by E.M. Forster

* Amusing Ourselves to Death, by Neil Postman

* Marc Barnes on smartphones

* The Abolition of Man, by C.S. Lewis

* Anna Karenina, by Leo Tolstoy

* When the Church Was Young, by Marcellino d’Ambrosio

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thecommon.place/subscribe

It's still the question Tsh and Seth get more than just about any other... They each began answering this question in earlier chats, but it involves an answer that may take a lifetime to share... In this episode, Tsh shares more of her journey to the Catholic Church, why it wasn’t just switching a “denomination,” and why the telos of the idea of a global church led her to recognize that Jesus established it in a particular way for a particular purpose. All Christians were Catholic for most of Church history, and this communion of saints is for all of us. …It's a fitting story to continue telling during Holy Week.

* Seth: Newsletter | Website

* Tsh: Newsletter | Website

* Pick up a round of drinks

* Our recommended reads

* Come to Ireland with Tsh!

* Why is Tsh Catholic? Part 1

* Why is Seth Catholic? Part 1

* Resources that answered Tsh’s Catholic questions

* Christy Nockels’ Come Magnify and Benediction

* Tsh’s Bitter & Sweet Lent playlist

* Andrew Peterson’s Resurrection Letters Anthology

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thecommon.place/subscribe

On the trails, in silence of an adoration chapel, in the practice of shrugging our shoulders, in the dirt of the earth, in art, bread, a feast with our friends. In other words: practice. This is where Seth and his wife Amber have learned to search for signs of hope, even during a season of recovery, pandemic chaos, political turmoil. Tsh talks with Seth about this idea — looking for hope in the midst of a world that tips toward despair — and why doing so changes everything. Seth and Amber recorded their experience in a book, and they didn’t hold back.

* Seth: Newsletter | Website

* Tsh: Newsletter | Website

* Pick up a round of drinks

* Our recommended reads

* Come to Ireland with Tsh!

* Pre-order The Deep Down Things here, here, or here!

* Seth’s announcement

* Amber’s announcement

* Olga Karlovac on Instagram

* East of Eden, by John Steinbeck

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thecommon.place/subscribe

C.S. Lewis wrote a newspaper column as a series of letters from a demon writing to his nephew training for his role as …well, a demon. Screwtape advises Wormwood how to best attack his “patient” — an unassuming young man — and his tactics aren’t what we’d expect. Tsh shares with Seth why she loves this book so much, why it’s still relevant (perhaps more?) today than it was when it was first published during the height of World War II, and why all of us need to read it. In fact, if you’re new to Lewis and want to give him a whirl, The Screwtape Letters is a great place to start.

* Seth: Newsletter | Website

* Tsh: Newsletter | Website

* Pick up a round of drinks

* Our recommended reads

* Come to Ireland with Tsh!

* Sing Hat Co.

* Wilson Knives

* Catechism in a Year podcast

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thecommon.place/subscribe

Isn’t it weird to travel with people you’ve never met? Tsh thought so, too, until she started leading pilgrimages. Now it’s one of her favorite things she does. She chats with her friend Bond Strong, who went on Tsh’s 2022 pilgrimage to Italy. They talk about why travel makes them love their home even more, how their love for travel only grew once they became parents, what they loved most about their time in Italy, and why you — yes, YOU — should go on Tsh’s 2023 pilgrimage to Ireland. There’s still time, but there are only a few spots left!

* Join Tsh in Ireland!

* Tsh’s Newsletter & Website

* Pick up a round of drinks

* Recommended reads

* Saint Stories for Kids podcast

* The Awakening of Miss Prim, by Natalia Sanmartin Fenollera

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thecommon.place/subscribe

Aren’t old books too hard for kids to understand? Maybe. Or maybe not. Tsh chats with her new friend Noah Tyler about his challenge of reading aloud from the original Harvard Classics set (also known as “Dr. Eliot’s Five-Foot Shelf of Books”). They talk about how books have the proclivity to form our minds and hearts, what it looks like to homeschool in an urban setting, and how any parent can shape their home environment in small ways to help the family better order their loves.

(Seth will be back in the next episode!)

* CLT Exam: get 25% off any registration with the code COMMONPLACE

* CLT’s Author Bank

* Anchored Podcast

* The original Harvard Classics

* CLT’s Great Ideas series (based on the Syntopicon)

* Gillian Cross’ Iliad & Odyssey

* Philosophy for Kids, by David White

* The Way of Perfection, by St. Teresa of Avila

* Bitter & Sweet playlist for Lent

* Tsh’s Newsletter & Website

* Pick up a round of drinks

* Our recommended reads

* Join Tsh in Ireland!

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thecommon.place/subscribe

You always remember your first. ...Get your mind out of the gutter, we're talking about first BOOK loves — you know, the stories that captured us and wouldn't let us go. In this episode, Seth and Tsh talk about the books that first drew them to the magic of good storytelling and word-weaving — beyond childish trinket stories, these were the books that first taught them the sacramental beauty of telling a story well. What about you? What were your first story loves? They go beyond books — these stories tell us more about ourselves as co-creators, made by God to bring beauty into the world.

* Seth: Newsletter | Website

* Tsh: Newsletter | Website

* Pick up a round of drinks

* Our recommended reads

* Join Tsh in Ireland!

* A Wrinkle in Time, by Madeleine L’Engle

* The Old Man and the Sea, by Ernest Hemingway

* The Lord of the Flies, by William Golding

* The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald

* Catholic Lofi on Spotify

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thecommon.place/subscribe

Lex orandi lex credendi lex vivendi. What does this old Latin phrase mean? And what does it have to do with actual life? Lots, actually. These words represent an idea that’s not only time-tested, but it affects more of your life than you think. Seth and Tsh unpack why this concept matters, and what it has to do with topics like faith, education, work, and more. (In fact, you’ll hear more about this idea in upcoming episodes this season!)

* Seth: Newsletter | Website

* Tsh: Newsletter | Website

* Pick up a round of drinks

* Our recommended reads

* Join Tsh in Ireland!

* At Home in the World, by Tsh

* You Are What You Love, by James K.A. Smith

* Brothers Karamazov, by Fyodor Dostoevsky, read by Luke Thompson

* Slaughterhouse-Five, by Kurt Vonnegut, read by Ethan Hawke

* Future Home of the Living God, by Louise Erdrich

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thecommon.place/subscribe

The new year kicks off with Seth in bed with the flu, so even though he musters up the strength to chat, in this episode it's mostly Tsh. Last year they each gave themselves a six-month challenge, so she shares her plan for this year: ten challenges in ten months! Why? How? And what are they? Tsh gets into all that with Seth. 

• Seth: Newsletter | Website


• Tsh: Newsletter | Website


• Pick up a round of drinks


• Our recommended reads


• Join Tsh in Ireland!


• Big Thief's new album, Dragon New Mountain I Believe in You


• Season 3 of All Creatures Great and Small

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thecommon.place/subscribe

Seth and Tsh are offline for the next couple of weeks, but the show will pick back up in January. In the meantime, they've got a few thoughts for you — by way of other people's thoughts. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

• Seth's newsletter + website


• Tsh's newsletter + website
  


• Pick up a round of drinks!

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thecommon.place/subscribe

Bonus! Tsh recently talked with Sam Smith and his teenage son, Josiah, about the fine art of writing a book together. Sam, often known as S.D., is the author of the beloved Green Ember series, and his son came up with an idea for his own story. So, he took him under his wing and together they published the first in a new book series! Sam and Josiah share with Tsh what it’s like to write together and how to cultivate a home life that loves good stories.

• S.D. and J.C. Smith's new book, Jack Zulu


• S.D. Smith


• Tsh's newsletter + website


• Listen to all the episodes

 

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thecommon.place/subscribe

With Advent in full force and Christmas on its way, Seth and Tsh keep it lighter-hearted in this episode. They share what's adding more joy to their days in the categories of movies/TV series, music, books, and habits. Bookmark this episode's show notes for your upcoming holiday downtime!

• Seth's newsletter + website


• Tsh's newsletter + website


• Tsh's 2022 Gift Guide


• Pick up a round of drinks!


• Our recommended reads


• Onyx Coffee


• Spirited


• Naughty or Nice


• Every Hallmark Christmas Movie


• The Man Who Invented Christmas


• All Creatures Great & Small, Seasons 1 & 2


• In the Bleak Midwinter, by John Van Deusen


• Hark! A podcast about Christmas carols from America Media


• If On a Winter's Night, by Sting


• The Gospel of Luke


• The Penguin Book of Christmas Stories


• The Word is Murder, The Sentence is Death, & A Line to Kill by Anthony Horowitz

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thecommon.place/subscribe

We all have a liturgy to our lives, even if we don't call it that. So why bother with one that's old and global, too? Since Advent is the start of a new liturgical year, Seth and Tsh unpack what the calendar is and why it matters. Not so much a deep dive, this chat is more of a high-level perspective on why it's good to lean into a rhythm for marking time outside of ourselves.

• Seth's newsletter + website


• Tsh's newsletter + website


• Tsh's 2022 Gift Guide


• Pick up a round of drinks!


• Our recommended reads


• A 101 on Advent


• Tsh's Advent book, Shadow & Light


• The Liturgical Year, by Joan Chittister


• Living the Christian Year, by Bobby Gross


• Sounding the Seasons, by Malcolm Guite


• The Comfort Crisis, by Michael Easter


• Madison Cunningham

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thecommon.place/subscribe

Seth is joined by Myles Werntz, a professor of theology, and in this chat they unpack what's meant by community, a word we toss around a lot in our culture. What's the real difference between in-person and virtual communities? What do screens provide a community when they're needed, and what do they rob us of when they're not? And what's the takeaway for our day-to-day lives?

p.s. - Seth & Tsh will be back together next episode!

• Seth's newsletter + website


• Pick up a round of drinks!


• Our recommended reads


• Myles' Substack


• Myles on Twitter


• Myles' book, From Isolation to Community


• The Brothers K, by David James Duncan


• The Candy House, by Jennifer Egan

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thecommon.place/subscribe

Tsh is joined by a good friend — her husband, Kyle! A late-night conversation, they reflect on how travel has affected their 20-year marriage and why you (yes, you!) should join them next summer in Ireland. ☘️

• Tsh's newsletter + website


• Pick up a round of drinks!


• Our recommended reads


• Create your Rule of Life


• Come to Ireland!


• Somebody Feed Phil in Ireland

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thecommon.place/subscribe

Both adult Catholic converts from a lifetime of Protestantism, Seth and Tsh each could do a 12-part series on why they swam the Tiber. In this chat, Seth unpacks with Tsh just a few items in his backpack worn on his journey to the Church. If you’re curious about what compelled him to walk this path, this episode’s for you.

• Seth's Newsletter + Website


• Tsh's newsletter + website


• Pick up a round of drinks!


• Our recommended reads


• Create your Rule of Life


• Part 1 of Tsh’s journey to the Church ​


• Seth’s books: Coming Clean and The Book of Waking Up 


• Hipbillies, by Jared Phillips


• Tsh’s Cozy Autumn playlist

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thecommon.place/subscribe

More and more folks are talking about the ills of social media, but the platforms remain hugely popular (and addictive). Seth asks Tsh about her recent decision to leave Instagram even though "they" say writers should be there if they want to sell books. She was willing to leave her large-ish following and decade-plus feed for something better — and she has zero regrets.

• Seth's Newsletter + Website


• Tsh's newsletter + website


• Pick up a round of drinks!


• Our recommended reads


• Tsh's micro.blog


• Confessions, by St. Augustine (Sarah Ruden's translation)

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thecommon.place/subscribe

What does it mean to be a man or a woman? And just as important in today's culture, how do we have civil, truthful, loving conversations about that topic? Seth and Tsh are joined by author and professor Abigail Favale to talk about those things. She's written a book that's taking off like wildfire about one of the most pressing questions of the day — who are we as men and women?

• Seth's Newsletter + Website


• Tsh's newsletter + website


• Pick up a round of drinks!


• Our recommended reads


• The Genesis of Gender, by Abigail Favale


• Abigail on Twitter


• Abigail's free video series, Cultivating Catholic Feminism


• Endeavour


• Father Elijah: An Apocalypse, by Michael D. O'Brien


•  

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thecommon.place/subscribe

We're back! Seth and Tsh recap Italy, but don't worry, it's not done in a way that bores you if you weren't there... They reflect on why it's always true that ordinary conversations with new friends over gelato are more meaningful than touring even the most jaw-dropping cathedrals and monasteries (though that's great, too). They also share recorded thoughts from some of the folks who joined them in Italy.

We're all made for in-person connection, and this is why having a drink with a friend at your neighborhood cafe matters so much.

• Seth's Newsletter + Website


• Tsh's newsletter + website


• Pick up a round of drinks!


• Our recommended reads


• The Genesis of Gender, by Abigail Favale


• CS Lewis’ space/Ransom trilogy: Out of the Silent Planet, Perelandra, and That Hideous Strength

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thecommon.place/subscribe

It's good to remember the good things in life, especially when the news is heavy (when is ever not anymore, right?). And since art has a season, Seth and Tsh share their summery music, movies, TV shows, and books they're into right now. Because good art tells good stories, even when they're lighthearted.

Also: it's time for their annual summer break! Seth and Tsh will return in mid-August — in the meantime, enjoy the treasure trove of Drink archives, listen to other good shows, or just take a break and go outside.

• Seth's Newsletter + Website


• Tsh's newsletter + website


• Pick up a round of drinks


• Come to Italy with us — next month!


• Our recommended reads


• Magnolia Workshops


• The Collection's Entropy album


• Michael & Michelle


• Tsh's Summer 2022 playlist


• Sean Hayes


• Thor: Love and Thunder


• 1971: The Year That Music Changed Everything


• The Hood Internet — top songs from each year


• The Genesis of Gender, by Abigail Favale


• A Curious Faith, by Lore Ferguson


• Sea of Tranquility, by Emily St. John Mandel


• Leisure: the Basis of Culture, by Josef Pieper


• In Other Words, by Jhumpa Lahiri

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thecommon.place/subscribe

Tsh talks to her good friend, Sarah Mackenzie, about what makes good stories (especially for our kids). She's got a HUGE new project in the works: not only a new children's book, but a new publishing house! When it's hard to publish new classics that tell timeless truths, you gotta start the company yourself. Why do we need more stories that tell us things that were as true a thousand years ago as they are today? Listen in.

• Tsh's newsletter + website


• Pick up a round of drinks


• Come to Italy with us — next month!


• Our recommended reads


• Sarah Mackenzie's work: Read-Aloud Revival & Waxwing Books


• A Little More Beautiful, Sarah's forthcoming picture book


• Julia Cameron's morning pages


• Ira Glass' The Gap


• Tomie DePaola


• Breaking Bread With The Dead, by Alan Jacobs


• Breezy Brookshire on Instagram


• Miss Rumphius, by Barbara Cooney


• You Can Draw in 30 Days, by Mark Kistler


• I Miss My Cafe + The Hole & Corner playlist

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thecommon.place/subscribe

It's now Tsh's turn to update us on her six-month challenge: what she's learned living as best she can in a 100-mile radius. She and Seth talk about the importance of subsidiarity, reorienting our priorities, finding community IN an actual community (vs. online), and doing it all imperfectly. Is living locally worth the effort? Tsh has thoughts.

• Seth: Newsletter | Website


• Tsh: Newsletter | Website


• Pick up a round of drinks


• Come to Italy with us


• Our recommended reads


• Seth's challenge: 6 months away from social media


• The Life We’re Looking For, by Andy Crouch


• Free online classes from Hillsdale College — Tsh is taking Aristotle's Ethics


• Man and His Symbols, by Carl Jung

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thecommon.place/subscribe

It's June, which means Seth and Tsh are at the end of their first of the year challenges. Seth updates us on what he's learned being away from social media for six months, what he'll do differently, and what he misses. Tsh chimes in on her reflections about using our phones as instruments instead of devices so that the internet returns to how it works best: as a bicycle for the mind. 

• Seth: Newsletter | Website


• Tsh: Newsletter | Website


• Pick up a round of drinks


• Come to Italy with us


• Our recommended reads


• The Life We’re Looking For, by Andy Crouch


• Digital Minimalism, by Cal Newport


• Mohamed El-Erian on Twitter


• Stephanie Duncan Smith on Instagram


• Man and His Symbols, by Carl Jung


• The Liturgy of the Hours, from Word on Fire

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thecommon.place/subscribe

Hobbies aren't just the things we do whenever we have spare time — they're actually important to our health. The things we do just because we enjoy them, staying at amateur status for the love of the craft, starting at the beginning and learning from zero, make us more of who we're made to be. Seth and Tsh each share some of their favorite hobbies and why they're so important to them.

• Seth: Newsletter | Website


• Tsh: Newsletter | Website


• Pick up a round of drinks


• Come to Italy with us


• Our recommended reads


• Leisure: The Basis of Culture, by Josef Pieper


• Band of Brothers


• Vivian Maier

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thecommon.place/subscribe

Seth moseys by a river and sits among the birds to explain what's up this week. He and Tsh be back next week with a new episode! Stay tuned.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thecommon.place/subscribe

Both Seth and Tsh became Catholic just a few years ago, as adults after a lifetime of being Protestant. Why? ...That's the question they get asked by many of you ALL the time. In this episode, they dip their toes in the water of answering this massive question that doesn't have just one answer, focusing first more on Tsh's journey. (This will likely be an ongoing series, peppered throughout other chats...) 

• Seth: Newsletter | Website


• Tsh: Newsletter | Website


• Pick up a round of drinks


• Come to Italy with us — $250 off when you register by May 31, 2022!


• Our recommended reads


• Pink House Alchemy 


• Tsh’s Catholic research 


• Fr. Mike on ‘why be Catholic and not just Christian’


• How to Read (and Write) Like a Catholic, by Joshua Hren


• Henri Cartier-Bresson

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thecommon.place/subscribe

It's the end of the school year, and May is always nuts. When life feels flustered, it's grounding to remember the ordinary things adding beauty to our days. Seth and Tsh each share what they're currently reading, watching, and listening to that are bringing them more joy and insight.

• Seth: Newsletter | Website


• Tsh: Newsletter | Website


• Pick up a round of drinks


• Come to Italy with us — $250 off when you register by May 31, 2022!


• Our recommended reads


• Tsh's Summer 2022 playlist ​​ 


• The Black Keys, Typhoon, Jason Isbell, & S. Carey's Paralyzed


• Learning the Good Life, edited by Jessica Hooten Wilson & Jacob Stratman  


• The Wall Street Journal


• Principles for Dealing With The Changing World Order, by Ray Dalio


• Cultivating Catholic Feminism video series


• Inventing Anna on Netflix 


• Under the Banner of Heaven on Hulu 


• Under the Banner of Heaven, by Jon Krakauer 

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thecommon.place/subscribe

How do we connect with people when our differences are exacerbated by algorithms and echo chambers? Seth and Tsh are joined around the table by their friends Beth Silvers and Sarah Stewart-Holland from the podcast Pantsuit Politics — together, they chat about what it looks like to listen and learn from others when it feels like we disagree on almost everything.

• Beth and Sarah's podcast, Pantsuit Politics


• Their new book, Now What?


• Seth: Newsletter | Website


• Tsh: Newsletter | Website


• Pick up a round of drinks


• Come to Italy with us — $250 off when you register by May 31, 2022!


• Our recommended reads


• Conflict is Not Abuse, by Sarah Schulman


• The Biggest Little Farm


• i thank you god for most this amazing, by e.e. cummings


• Southland in the Springtime, by Indigo Girls


• Glow Up on Netflix

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thecommon.place/subscribe

Particular places in the world matter, whether they're your grandma's childhood home or the Sistene Chapel. Going to them matters, too, and it's a privilege and honor to do so because the journey, the arrival, and the conversations once we're there shape us for the better. Go to them when you can.

• Seth: Newsletter | Website


• Tsh: Newsletter | Website


• Pick up a round of drinks


• Come to Italy with us — $250 off when you register by May 31, 2022!


• Our recommended reads


• Tornado Trackers podcast


• Station Eleven on HBO


• Four Seasons in Rome, by Anthony Doerr

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thecommon.place/subscribe

You don't need all the people, you just need your people. This is the premise of an idea penned over a decade ago that still serves as a bellwether for Seth and Tsh's work, that they're on the right track. It can be applied in all parts of life, and is especially true when we're tempted to work like someone else.

• Seth: Newsletter | Website


• Tsh: Newsletter | Website


• Pick up a round of drinks & help keep the show going


• Come to Italy with us


• Our recommended reads


• 1,000 True Fans


• Tsh's ideal reader, Julia


• Stephanie Duncan Smith


• Emily P. Freeman


• The Science of Storytelling, by Will Storr


• The Invisible Life of Addie Larue, by V.E. Schwab

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thecommon.place/subscribe

It's been a doozy of a week, so Tsh and Seth weren't able to chat — instead, they're re-sharing with you a chat from spring 2021. Perhaps you haven't yet heard it, or perhaps you're due for a re-listen. ...Either way, enjoy!

Walking is good for us, but it takes a while — it’s not the most efficient mode of transportation. But it’s not about efficiency; that’s not the point. What about the other stuff in our life that can benefit from slowness? Seth and Tsh talk about being slow to reply, slow to respond, and slow to assume, and how we all need to do more of it.

• Seth: Newsletter | Website


• Tsh: Newsletter | Website


• Pick up a round of drinks & help keep the show going


• Come to Italy with us


• Our recommended reads


• Ancient Nutrition Bone Broth


• Mark Sparrow’s tweet


• @findinginterestingpeople


• Atlas Obscura Podcast

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thecommon.place/subscribe

Two episodes ago, Seth updated us on how his six-month challenge was faring, halfway through. Now it's Tsh's turn. Her challenge is to live as much as she can within her 100-mile radius — what does that mean, though? How do we live according to our unique values without being legalistic? And how do we gracefully handle the privilege that most of us have?

• Seth: Newsletter | Website


• Tsh: Newsletter | Website


• Pick up a round of drinks & help keep the show going


• Come to Italy with us


• Our recommended reads


• Create your own Rule of Life


• A 100-Mile Life, Tsh's initial challenge explanation


• 1984, by George Orwell


• The Science of Storytelling, by Will Storr 


• On Writing, by Stephen King

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thecommon.place/subscribe

There's something life-giving in uttering the phrase, "I guess I haven't learned that yet." Seth and Tsh talk with their friend Shauna Niequist about how she's learned to exhale and relearn how her life could be. Through moving to a new city, leaving known familiarity into uncharted territory, and questioning just about everything, Shauna found some much-needed freedom in the sacramentality of a learner's posture.

• Shauna's new book, I Guess I Haven't Learned That Yet


• Shauna on Instagram


• Seth: Newsletter | Website


• Tsh: Newsletter | Website


• Pick up a round of drinks & help keep the show going


• Come to Italy with us


• Our recommended reads


• The Book of Delights, by Ross Gay


• Walking on Water, by Madeleine L'Engle


• Ask Me: 100 Essential Poems of William Stafford

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thecommon.place/subscribe

It's about halfway through Seth's challenge to stay off social media for the first six months of 2022. How have the first three months been? Will anything change for the next three months? He and Tsh talk some more about big-picture social media: does it work as a public square? When is censorship called for, and when does it violate free speech? And are the positives ultimately worth all the negatives?

• Seth: Newsletter | Website


• Tsh: Newsletter | Website


• Pick up a round of drinks & help keep the show going


• Come to Italy with us


• Our recommended reads


• How big tech is strangling your freedom on Honestly


• Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism, by Amanda Montell


• Around the World in 80 Days on PBS

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thecommon.place/subscribe

When life is busy — like Seth's right now, or when life is slower — like Tsh's, who just started a short teaching break — it's a good time to remember good things. In this episode, they chat about three things each that are currently adding more beauty to their lives: a thing they're listening to, reading, and watching.

• Seth: Newsletter | Website


• Tsh: Newsletter | Website


• Pick up a round of drinks & help keep the show going


• Come to Italy with us!


• Wendell Berry's New Collected Poems


• The Woman at the Wall of St. Michael's, Seth’s poem for Ukraine


• The Abolition of Man​, by C.S. Lewis


• Half Moon Run + newsletter


• Mountain Man


• Bari Weiss’ episode on Honestly, Things Worth Fighting For


• The Last Kingdom on Netflix


• All Creatures Great and Small on PBS

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thecommon.place/subscribe

We’ve all heard of the seven deadly sins, but what good does it do to think about them in our modern, well-intentioned lives? Maybe more to the point — why does contemplating about them bring us hope? It’s because of their corresponding virtues. Seth and Tsh talk about what this looks like in their own lives.

As a reference, here are the seven pairs of vices and virtues:

• Pride: A desire for excellence in excess of right reason
  
  • Humility: A rightly-ordered estimation of excellence
  
  
  
  


• Gluttony: A disordered desire for good things
  
  • Temperance: A desire to keep good things in their rightful place
  
  
  
  


• Lust: A disordered desire for pleasure
  
  • Chastity: A rightly-ordered desire for pleasure
  
  
  
  


• Envy: Sorrow for another’s good
  
  • Love: To will the good of the other
  
  
  
  


• Greed: A desire for more than is needed
  
  • Generosity/charity: A desire for enough for all
  
  
  
  


• Anger: A desire for vengeance contrary to reason
  
  • Meekness: Power under control
  
  
  
  


• Sloth: Sorrow for spiritual good; the absence of care
  
  • Diligence: Taking care to do what we value most
  
  
  
  

• Seth: Newsletter | Website


• Tsh: Newsletter | Website


• Pick up a round of drinks & help keep the show going


• Come to Italy with us!


• Bitter & Sweet, Tsh’s book for Lent


• The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane, by Lisa See


• Putin Country: A Journey Into the Real Russia, Anne Garrel

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thecommon.place/subscribe

When big global events happen — like Russia invading Ukraine — what can we possibly do in our small, ordinary lives to make any difference? Seth and Tsh chat about how they’ve been talking about the news with their kids, how they’ve been processing it for themselves, and what we might learn from the past to forge ahead soberly toward the future.

• Seth: Newsletter | Website


• Tsh: Newsletter | Website


• Pick up a round of drinks & help keep the show going


• Come to Italy with us!


• Bitter & Sweet, Tsh’s new book


• The Bitter & Sweet playlist


• The Weight of Glory, by C.S. Lewis


• World War II in Color on Netflix


• The War by Ken Burns, on PBS


• On the Shortness of Life, by Seneca

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thecommon.place/subscribe

Seth is off doing lawyer-y things this week, so Tsh talks to friend Joy Clarkson about, essentially, Wendell Berry’s beloved quip, “Be joyful though you have considered all the facts.” Why is it not only a good idea to pursue happiness — it’s necessary? And perhaps counter-cultural to our doomscroll-obsessed modern ways? Joy and Tsh talk about where real happiness is found, what it means to unironically enjoy what we love, and why doing so even makes us better neighbors.

• Seth: Newsletter | Website


• Tsh: Newsletter | Website


• Pick up a round of drinks & help keep the show going


• Come to Italy with us!


• Joy Clarkson and her new book, Aggressively Happy


• Joy on Twitter and Instagram


• The Artist’s Way, by Julia Cameron


• Bitter & Sweet, Tsh’s new book for Lent

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thecommon.place/subscribe

As friends do, in this episode Seth and Tsh come to table to talk about whatever. Like the nerds they are, they end up talking about Romantic poetry, the end of the world, and more. Pull up a chair and join in!

• Seth: Newsletter | Website


• Tsh: Newsletter | Website


• Pick up a round of drinks & help keep the show going


• Come to Italy with us!


• Bitter & Sweet, Tsh’s book for Lent


• Station Eleven, by Emily St. John Mandel


• The Road, by Cormac McCarthy


• Principles for Dealing With the Changing World Order, by Ray Dalio


• “To Sleep,” by John Keats


• The Art of Lent, by Sr. Wendy Beckett


• Exploring Alternatives on YouTube

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thecommon.place/subscribe

Seth is off social media for the first half of 2022, and Tsh is limiting most of her family’s resources to her 100-mile radius. How’s it going? What are we learning? We chat about these things, plus whether we think these practices might be a net-positive for you, too.

• Seth: Newsletter | Website


• Tsh: Newsletter | Website


• Pick up a round of drinks & help keep the show going


• Come to Italy with us!


• Bitter & Sweet, Tsh’s new book


• Station Eleven, by Emily St. John Mandel


• The Family Garden Plan, by Melissa K. Norris

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thecommon.place/subscribe

Liz Gilbert once said that if she didn’t write, she’d become a farm dog and chew up the couch. Why do we partake in creative pursuits if we’re not going to profit financially from it? Lots of reasons, actually. Tsh and Seth chat with their friends Maile and Shawn Smucker about what they’ve been learning about why they have an insatiable need to create — and why every one of us needs to as well.

• Seth: Newsletter | Website


• Tsh: Newsletter | Website


• Pick up a round of drinks & help keep the show going


• Come to Italy with us!


• Seth’s latest thoughts on why he writes


• The Gap


• The Nine-Month Novel, led by Maile & Shawn Smucker


• Video of a Novel, Shawn’s new Substack


• Journal of a Novel, by John Steinbeck


• The Gospel in Gerard Manley Hopkins, by Margaret Ellsberg


• The Moviegoer, by Walker Percy


• Nobody Reads Poetry

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thecommon.place/subscribe

We have SO MANY choices these days — on what to watch, what to listen to, what to read. We know well the feeling of opening a streaming service and indefinitely scrolling instead of clicking ‘play’ because of the inability to make a choice. So how do we choose? How do we all decide what deserves our attention and what we should just scroll past? After all, even with seemingly infinite choices, we still have a finite amount of time and focus. Seth & Tsh chat about how to decide what deserves a spot on our bookshelves, on our Family Movie Night agendas, and ultimately, in our personal and familial cultures.

• Seth: Newsletter | Website


• Tsh: Newsletter | Website


• Pick up a round of drinks & help keep the show going


• Come to Italy with us!


• Oatly 2021 Super Bowl commercial


• Keep or Toss? from Joel Miller


• Soul-Crushing, Family-Friendly Inspirational Trash from Joshua Gibbs


• New West Knifeworks


• Garden Maker, by Christie Purifoy

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thecommon.place/subscribe

Disagreeing well is a lost art — it seems like our culture has withered down to treating one another as avatars not worthy of an opinion different than our own. But what if knowing how to disagree well not only mattered to our own personal development, but was also a tool in keeping our civilization from crumbling? Seth and Tsh talk about why disagreeing matters so much and how we can do it better.

• Seth: Newsletter | Website


• Tsh: Newsletter | Website


• Pick up a round of drinks & help keep the show going


• Come to Italy with us!


• Tiny House Coffee Roasters in Austin


• Elizabeth Lesser on taking the “other” to lunch


• The Lincoln Highway, by Amor Towles


• 100 Years of Solitude, by Gabriel García Márquez

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thecommon.place/subscribe

As you remember from the last episode, Seth and Tsh are beginning two audacious six-month challenges. In this episode, Tsh shares hers — to get as much as she can and participate in day-to-day life first and foremost from her 100-mile radius. What does this actually mean? Is this something only “privileged” people can do? And like Seth’s challenge, if we all did this would our souls be more attuned to how we’re meant to live?

• Seth: Newsletter | Website


• Tsh: Newsletter | Website


• Pick up a round of drinks & help keep the show going


• Come to Italy with us!


• Tsh’s 100-Mile Life experiment


• Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver


• How Luxury Beliefs Hurt the Rest of Us, Too on Honestly


• The CCC on Subsidiarity


• Joseph Massey’s Substack

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thecommon.place/subscribe

To start the new year, Seth and Tsh are beginning two rather audacious six-month challenges — and you’re welcome to join in. First, they unpack Seth’s plan to swear off all social media for six months. How will he fare? Will this affect his work as a writer? And if he decides to stay off, will it affect his ability to publish books? The two friends unpack the connection between the publishing industry and social media, as well as the benefits of living a life without social media. Sacramentally speaking, would our souls be more attuned to how we’re meant to live? Or is there a benefit we’d miss?

• Seth: Newsletter | Website


• Tsh: Newsletter | Website


• Pick up a round of drinks & help keep the show going


• Come to Italy with us!


• Seth’s social media habit-kicking experiment


• The Social Dilemma documentary


• Unhook Chrome Extension — remove YouTube’s algorithm recommendations


• What I Learned Taking a Year-Long Break From Social Media


• Digital Minimalism, by Cal Newport


• Principles for Dealing With the Changing World Order, by Ray Dalio


• A Nature Poem Every Night of the Year, edited by Jane McMorland Hunter

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thecommon.place/subscribe

As we wind down this year, it’s tempting to jump into the new things we want to do, plan, and declare for another trip around the sun. But before we jump into ideas for the next 12 months, it’s healthy and good to reflect on the previous 12. Seth and Tsh use some of the 20 questions Tsh has published on the internet for the past decade to debrief the year that was 2021. Join in!

The show is taking a short break for the holidays. Look for new episodes in a few weeks — happy holidays!

(Also, please note the sound quality is not up to our standards in this episode — we apologize for the inconvenience.)

• Seth: Newsletter | Website


• Tsh: Newsletter | Website


• Pick up a round of drinks & help keep the show going


• Come to Italy with us!


• 20+ Questions For a New Year


• Brideshead Revisited, by Evelyn Waugh


• 40 Reasons I’m a Catholic, by Peter Kreeft


• An Immovable Feast, by Tyler Blanski (on backorder, but it’s on Schlamazon)


• The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius


• The Bear Grease podcast


• The 25th: New & Selected Christmas Essays, by Joshua Gibbs

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thecommon.place/subscribe

It’s easy to forget the simple beauty around us, so in this episode, Seth and Tsh continue practicing the habit of noticing the gift of everyday beauty. Their choices aren’t purely holiday-specific, but there is a bent toward that which we enjoy this time of year. As always — as a listener, you’re invited to join them in this time-tested practice of recognizing the daily beauty around you, too!

• Seth: Newsletter | Website


• Tsh: Newsletter | Website


• Pick up a round of drinks & help keep the show going


• Come to Italy with us!


• Sweet Tooth on Netflix


• A Christmas Carol audiobook, read by Hugh Grant


• Advent Songs by The Porter’s Gate


• Ryan Holiday


• Meditations, by Marcus Aurelius


• George Saunders’ Substack


• The Man Who Invented Christmas

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thecommon.place/subscribe

Traditioooooooooon… Tradition! We all have them during the holidays, but why do they matter? Seth and Tsh unpack the sacramentality of leaning into even our smallest of family traditions — because they matter more than as simply “things we do every year.” Traditions remind us we’re not alone, life is bigger than we are, and that we’re time-bound creatures made with a need for routine and rhythm. They’re anchors for our souls, especially when life is hard.

• Seth: Newsletter | Website


• Tsh: Newsletter | Website


• Pick up a round of drinks & help keep the show going


• Come to Italy with us!


• Drink merch (here’s the mug)!


• Shadow & Light, Tsh’s Advent book


• The Scandal of Holiness, by Jessica Hooten Wilson


• A Curious Faith, by Lore Ferguson Wilbert

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thecommon.place/subscribe

Advent begins this weekend! Not ready? No big deal. Seth and Tsh talk about how they approach this season that starts the liturgical calendar with a lot of grace, simplicity, and anticipation of their favorite holiday traditions.

• Seth: Newsletter | Website


• Tsh: Newsletter | Website


• Pick up a round of drinks & help keep the show going


• Come to Italy with us!


• Tsh’s 2021 Holiday Gift Guide


• Drink merch!


• Shadow & Light, Tsh’s Advent book


• Sorrowland, by Rivers Solomon


• Pride & Prejudice on audiobook, by Jane Austen & read by Rosamund Pike

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thecommon.place/subscribe

Hey guys — this week Seth was traveling for work and Tsh was sick. So, unfortunately, there’s no episode because Seth was sans-mic and NOBODY wants to hear Tsh talking in the non-voice-of-a-voice she’s had (trust us). 

We’ll be back next week with an episode for your day-after-Thanksgiving, right-before-Advent listening ears!

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thecommon.place/subscribe

In the last episode, Seth shared a sacramental story from his life. In this one, they continue their chat with Tsh sharing a sacramental story from hers. Because after all, most of the sacred stuff in life shows up in our ordinary moments.

• Seth: Newsletter | Website


• Tsh: Newsletter | Website


• Pick up a round of drinks & help keep the show going


• Come to Italy with us!


• Try Hallow free for 30 days


• Tsh’s Rule of Life workshop


• Typhoon’s new album, Sympathetic Magic


• The Quotidian Mysteries: Laundry, Liturgy, & Women’s Work, by Kathleen Norris

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thecommon.place/subscribe

Most of life is lived in the ordinary, so to see the sacred within it we need to pause and name it. This usually comes in the form of storytelling — when we tell family and friends the things that happen to us, we become more aware of the sacramentality n the most mundane things. For the next two episodes, Seth and Tsh each swap a story from their life to recognize and name what’s just beneath the layer. You’re invited to do the same, too, within your ordinary life.

• Seth: Newsletter | Website


• Tsh: Newsletter | Website


• Pick up a round of drinks & help keep the show going


• Come to Italy with us!


• Try Hallow free for 30 days


• Tsh’s Rule of Life workshop


• Coming Clean, Seth’s story of sobriety


• Theology of Home, by Carrie Gress and Noelle Mering


• Honestly, by Bari Weiss — especially the episode with Ross Douthat

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thecommon.place/subscribe

In the last episode, Seth and Tsh chatted about what makes the art we love fall-ish. They continue the chat to talk about the flip side of that coin: what makes the creating of that art fall-ish? Art is a HUGE table here — yes, there’s writing and music-making, but there’s also homemaking, neighborliness, and doing our work well as forms of artistic expression. What does it look like to do these things in the autumnal season? What does it look like to live sacramentally as the leaves drop?

• Seth: Newsletter | Website


• Tsh: Newsletter | Website


• Pick up a round of drinks & help keep the show going


• Come to Italy with us!


• Try Hallow free for 30 days


• Tsh’s Rule of Life workshop


• The All of It, by Jeannette Haien


• The Way Down documentary series

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thecommon.place/subscribe

Stuff has a season, and that includes art. What makes music, movies, books, and visual art fall-ish? Seth and Tsh each share musicians, writers, and visual artists they’re digging as the temps dip and the colors change. Living sacramentally naturally includes living seasonally, so it makes sense to also shift what we read, watch, and listen to as the seasons change.

• Seth: Newsletter | Website


• Tsh: Newsletter | Website


• Pick up a round of drinks & help keep the show going


• Come to Italy with us!


• Black Keys’ Delta Kream


• Typhoon’s Sympathetic Magic and Offerings


• Damien Rice’s My Favourite Faded Fantasy


• Andrew Belle’s Nightshade and Black Bear


• Cloud Cuckoo Land, by Anthony Doerr


• Gerard Manley Hopkins’ poems


• Sherlock Holmes, by Arthur Conan Doyle


• Sherlock Holmes on audiobook, read by Stephen Fry


• A Hidden Life, by Terrence Malick


• The Modern Saints, by Grace Morbitzer

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thecommon.place/subscribe

If we knew then what we know now, would we be better off? Or is there something redeemable about the mistakes we all make when we’re younger? Seth and Tsh answer a listener question about any wisdom they might have for their slightly younger listeners — if they were in their twenties right now, this is what their forty-something selves would tell themselves.

• Seth: Newsletter | Website


• Tsh: Newsletter | Website


• Pick up a round of drinks & help keep the show going


• Come to Italy with us!


• EmyoArtwork on Instagram


• The new season of The Great British Bake-Off


• Save $10 on your first Storyworth order at storyworth.com/drink

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thecommon.place/subscribe

Continuing the conversation about screens, what does it look like in our homes to live sacramentally in a culture immersed in the digital world? There’s no one easy answer. Seth and Tsh, both parents of teens and tweens, talk with Erin Loechner about what this looks like for her, as a mom to three younger children.

• Seth: Newsletter | Website


• Tsh: Newsletter | Website


• Pick up a round of drinks & help keep the show going


• Come to Italy with us!


• Erin Loechner’s website, Design for Mankind


• Erin’s recent essay, Who We Follow


• The Tech-Wise Family, by Andy Crouch


• Digital Minimalism, by Cal Newport


• The Sober Lush, by Amanda Eyre Ward and Jardine Libaire


• East of Eden’s introduction, by John Steinbeck


• Munk Debates

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thecommon.place/subscribe

Seth and Tsh start a two-part conversation about what Seth is learning from a month-long digital detox (Tsh takes one every July, too, so she has her own experiences). What does it mean as writers and creators? Is it even possible to do good, profitable work and not be on social media? In short: what inconveniences are we willing to trade for a more beautiful life?

• Seth: Newsletter | Website


• Tsh: Newsletter | Website


• Pick up a round of drinks & help keep the show going


• Come to Italy with us!


• Digital Minimalism and Deep Work, by Cal Newport


• The Storm is Upon Us, by Mike Rothschild


• Adorning the Dark and God of the Garden, by Andrew Peterson


• Axel Vervoordt: Wabi Inspirations, by Tatsuro Miki

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thecommon.place/subscribe

Buon venerdì! Seth and Tsh finally spill the beans… They’re leading a pilgrimage next summer to Italy, and EVERYONE is invited. Yep — that means you and your friends! They’d love to journey with you to a slice of land that’s not only known for its art and beauty, but it knows how to do beauty well. Tuscany is steeped in an artful way of life, and it’s one of their favorite places in the world. From the art to the architecture to the food to the farming to the people and the slower pace of life… Pilgrimage to Italy next summer to experience the via pulchritudinis.

• Seth: Newsletter | Website


• Tsh: Newsletter | Website


• Pick up a round of drinks & help keep the show going


• Come to Italy with us!


• Silence in the Age of Noise, by Erling Kragg


• It’s Not Fall, Folks on Spotify + Stockbridge candle from Laurel Mercantile

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thecommon.place/subscribe

When you grow up hearing that this world will one day fade away, it’s hard to reconcile why, then, there’s so much astounding beauty everywhere. Seth and Tsh unpack why our invisible souls aren’t the only things that matter. (Gnosticism is still around, folks.)

• Seth: Newsletter | Website


• Tsh: Newsletter | Website


• Pick up a round of drinks & help keep the show going


• Come to Italy with us!


• Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s blackberries


• As Kingfishers Catch Fire, by Gerard Manley Hopkins


• God’s Grandeur, by Gerard Manley Hopkins

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thecommon.place/subscribe

In this episode, Seth and Tsh pull on the thread they started weaving earlier this year, practicing the art and habit of noticing the everyday beauty around them. (After all, it’s not optional if we want to live a sacramental life.) As always — as a listener, you’re invited to nod along and notice your own as well. Join in this time-tested practice!

• Seth: Newsletter | Website


• Tsh: Newsletter | Website


• Pick up a round of drinks & help keep the show going


• Come to Italy with us!


• No Fear Shakespeare: Hamlet


• Hamlet on YouTube: David Tennant, Benedict Cumberbatch, Andrew Scott


• Strange Brew


• Mozart’s Requiem


• Andrew Peterson


• Vivian Maier’s A Photographer Found


• Eva to Ave by Santa Clara Design


• Virgin Mary, by Sr. Maria Innocentia Hummel


• Ambience videos on YouTube

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thecommon.place/subscribe

The books we read in childhood have the power to transform us lifelong. So what do we do with the classics that are so good yet have those problematic bits because they’re products of their era? Do we avoid giving our kids these great works because they don’t reflect everything we believe in? Seth and Tsh are joined by fellow writer Mitali Perkins, who has passionate thoughts about why what we read in childhood matters. Her own immigrant story was steeped in stories.

• Seth: Newsletter | Website


• Tsh: Newsletter | Website


• Pick up a round of drinks & help keep the show going


• Come to Italy with us!


• Mitali Perkins: Twitter | Instagram | Website


• Mitali’s new book, Steeped in Stories: Bookshop | Amazon


• The Chair on Netflix


• Digital Minimalism, by Cal Newport


• The Book of Waking Up, by Seth


• Why Art Matters, by Alistair Gordon


• A Nature Poem for Every Day of the Year (and Night), by Jane McMorland Hunter

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thecommon.place/subscribe

There’s a purity to our childhood perspectives, and if we’re quiet enough, we can still hear them whisper to us. What do our first experiences with beauty, goodness, and truth tell us about what’s really there? Seth helps Tsh unpack a process he’s recently experienced as he listened to his nine-year-old self.

• Seth: Newsletter | Website


• Tsh: Newsletter | Website


• Pick up a round of drinks & help keep the show going


• Come to Italy with us!


• The Lord of the Rings, by J.R.R. Tolkien


• The Philosophy of Tolkien, by Peter Kreeft


• Drew Binsky on YouTube


• The Summer of Helga, by Seth


• The Suns We Orbit: Lessons Learned From Leaving the Church, by Seth

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thecommon.place/subscribe

After a short summer break, Seth and Tsh are back! To kick off another season, they talk about many vs few: why does it matter how many people we follow online, friends we stay connected with, names we know, or celebrities we keep up with? Turns out there’s some anthropological science to the overwhelm we feel when we keep track of thousands of people online yet don’t know our neighbor’s name across the street. Perhaps this isn’t how we’re designed to live?

• Seth: Newsletter | Website


• Tsh: Newsletter | Website


• Pick up a round of drinks & help keep the show going


• Come to Italy with us!


• Orgain protein powder


• Dunbar’s Number: Why My Theory That Humans Can Only Maintain 150 Friendships Has Withstood 30 Years of Scrutiny, by Robin Dunbar


• Bear Grease Podcast


• 1,000 True Fans, by Kevin Kelly


• Brideshead Revisited, by Evelyn Waugh


• Start With Why, by Simon Sinek


• The Sparrow, by Mary Doria Russell

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thecommon.place/subscribe

It’s not just the not doing of something… It often takes a certain proactivity to truly rest. Seth and Tsh talk about what it looks like to rest physically, emotionally, spiritually, and even sensory rest (which we all need more than we realize, what with all our modern sensory input everywhere). Resting well is a game-changer — especially when it’s in tandem with a dignified view of work and real play.

This episode puts their first season in the books! Seth and Tsh are taking a short summer break to REST, but they’ll be back soon.

• Seth: Newsletter | Website


• Tsh: Newsletter | Website


• Pick up a round of drinks & help keep the show going


• Come to Italy with us!


• The 7 Types of Rest that Every Person Needs, by Sandra Dalton-Smith, MD


• How Soft Fascination Helps Restore Your Tired Brain, by Markham Held


• Leisure: The Basis of Culture, by Josef Pieper


• Rest: Why You Get More Done When You Work Less, by Alex Soojung-Kim Pang


• This Is Where You Belong, by Melody Warnick


• Manifest on NBC (and on Netflix)

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thecommon.place/subscribe

It’s a kid’s m.o. to play; it’s how they learn and walk through life. But we adults need to play, too, and some of us (🙋‍♀️) frequently forget how. Play benefits our health in all sorts of ways, but it’s also just …fun. That’s a gift. Being a real, responsible adult doesn’t mean taking everything seriously.

• Seth: Newsletter | Website


• Tsh: Newsletter | Website


• Pick up a round of drinks & help keep the show going


• Come to Italy with us!


• Leisure: The Basis of Culture, by Josef Pieper


• Interior Castle, by St Teresa of Avila (selected passages)


• An Elderly Lady is Up to No Good, by Helene Tursten
  
  

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thecommon.place/subscribe

Recognizing beauty is a habit, and it’s also not optional if we want to live a sacramental life. In this episode, Seth and Tsh share specific examples of beauty they’re currently witnessing in their lives, and you’re invited to notice your own as well.

• Seth: Newsletter | Website


• Tsh: Newsletter | Website


• Pick up a round of drinks & help keep the show going


• Come to Italy with us!


• “We’ve Always Asked the Wrong Question,” on The Commonplace


• Andrew Wyeth: Website | MoMA Collection


• Jess Franks on Instagram

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thecommon.place/subscribe

Good stories matter — we all know this. But how do these good stories shape us, form our imaginations, make us better parents, and remind us what really matters? Why do the best stories sacramentally peel back the surface to reveal what’s really there? Seth and Tsh talk to their friend, novelist Shawn Smucker, about what it means to immerse your life in good stories — and why it’s not optional.

To borrow a quip from G.K. Chesterton about children and fairy tales (because it’s just as true for adults): good stories don’t tell us dragons exist. We already know this. Good stories tell us dragons can be killed.

• Seth: Newsletter | Website


• Tsh: Newsletter | Website


• Shawn Smucker: Books | Podcast | Twitter | Instagram | Website


• Pick up a round of drinks & help keep the show going


• Come to Italy with us!


• Journal of a Novel, by John Steinbeck


• Working Days, by John Steinbeck


• Evilene Killerman on Instagram


• Anything is Possible, by Elizabeth Strout


• The Surrender Experiment, by Michael A. Singer


• Radical Face's albums The Family Tree: The Roots, The Branches, and The Leaves


• Radical Face guidebook

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thecommon.place/subscribe

Two episodes ago, Seth and Tsh talked about artists who are no longer alive but still live on through the great art they left us. As a follow-up, in this episode they chat about the artists who are very much alive and are making the world a bit better through their art.

Seth's and Tsh's criteria? Artists who aren’t as commonly well-known, as well as people who aren’t out to make a name for themselves as an Influencer™ or ThoughtLeader™. They’re also some who aren’t even literal artists, per se, but they use their preferred medium like an artist would —  curated, thoughtful, and with the receiver in mind.

• Seth: Newsletter | Website


• Tsh: Newsletter | Website


• Pick up a round of drinks & help keep the show going


• Come to Italy with us!


• Lesley Villareal on Instagram


• Repertoire, by James Acaster on Netflix


• James Acaster On the Absurdity of the British Empire, on YouTube


• Wonderful Arkansas on Instagram


• Rick Steves - Podcast + YouTube


• City on Fire, Garth Risk Hallberg


• John Blase: Website + Twitte


• Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie


• Heather King on Instagram


• Boze Herrington on Twitter
  
  

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thecommon.place/subscribe

What’s the difference between a vacation and a pilgrimage? A roadtrip to see extended family and stepping somewhere sacred? So much of it has to do with our own mindset about what we’re doing in the first place. ‘Tis the season for summer travel, and after a year-plus of pandemic-tide, so many of us are itching to get the heck outta dodge. Seth & Tsh explore what it means to travel sacramentally — whether you’re flying internationally or driving the next town over.

• Seth: Newsletter | Website


• Tsh: Newsletter | Website


• Pick up a round of drinks & help keep the show going


• Come to Italy with us!


• Tsh's travel memoir, At Home in the World


• Sweet Tooth on Netflix


• “Ash Wednesday,” by T.S. Eliot


• StoryWorth: get $10 off your first purchase

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thecommon.place/subscribe

Our modern culture loves the here-and-now, preferring all our focus tilts towards the latest trends, the newest relevant art, the loudest and most attention-getting current Thought Leader™. But… Will this work and these ideas endure? Some of it, possibly. But a whole lot of what’s applause-seeking now will be forgotten in a year, or decade, or heck — next month.

This is why it’s good for us to notice what stuff has stood the test of time, whose art has endured. There are SO many dead people who still live through their phenomenal work, and in 2021 we should both enjoy it and listen to what it teaches us …because clearly there’s something noteworthy there. Seth and Tsh unpack whose older work affects them today — and who they’ve grown to appreciate even more the older they get.

• Seth: Newsletter | Website


• Tsh: Newsletter | Website


• Pick up a round of drinks & help keep the show going


• Come to Italy with us!


• Pride & Prejudice, by Jane Austen


• The Illustrated Man, by Ray Bradbury


• Mary Oliver’s collected poems


• The People Yes, by Carl Sandburg


• Orthodoxy, by G.K. Chesterton


• The Presence of the Kingdom, by Jaques Ellul


• Requiem Mass, by Mozart


• A Love Supreme, by John Coltrane


• Robin Williams in Dead Poets Society


• Jimmy Stewart in It’s a Wonderful Life


• Battlestar Galactica


• This Beautiful Truth, by Sarah Clarkson

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thecommon.place/subscribe

It’s a good thing to have disagreements, but we often forget to have a learner’s posture when we hear the “other side.” Are we surrounding ourselves only with sources and ThoughtLeaders™ that confirm our already-held biases? Or are we willing to genuinely learn? Seth and Tsh lean into GK Chesterton’s insight from almost a century ago: “People generally quarrel because they cannot argue. And it is extraordinary to notice how few people in the modern world can argue.”

• Seth: Newsletter | Website


• Tsh: Newsletter | Website


• Pick up a round of drinks & help keep the show going


• Come to Italy with us!


• Speaking 5+ Languages with my Polyglot Grandma (Part 1), by Nathaniel Drew


• Anthony Bourdain’s World Travel: An Irreverent Guide, by Anthony Bourdain & Laurie Woolever

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thecommon.place/subscribe

Routines are going to the grocery store on Tuesday mornings, listening to that one podcast in the school pickup line, and brushing your teeth twice a day. What, then, are rituals? Seth and Tsh unpack why they matter — because they tie our actions with our beliefs and values — and why both the big and small ones matter. Weddings and graduations are necessary, yes, but so are Friday pizza-and-movie nights, evening neighborhood walks, and praying along those beads.

• Seth: Newsletter | Website


• Tsh: Newsletter | Website


• Pick up a round of drinks & help keep the show going


• Come to Italy with us!


• Bishop Robert Barron


• Assurance, by William Stafford


• The Anthropocene Reviewed, by John Green

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thecommon.place/subscribe

In the last episode, Seth & Tsh talked about the benefits of slowing down our lives physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. A major benefit is to not burn out — so we can go farther for longer. What does that look like physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually? In this episode, they unpack what it means to look at life with a long-view lens.

• Seth: Newsletter | Website


• Tsh: Newsletter | Website


• Pick up a round of drinks & help keep the show going


• Come to Italy with us!


• John Van Deusen (especially the Origami album trilogy)


• Infinite Country, by Patricia Engel

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thecommon.place/subscribe

Walking is good for us, but it takes a while — it’s not the most efficient mode of transportation. But it’s not about efficiency; that’s not the point. What about the other stuff in our life that can benefit from slowness? Seth and Tsh talk about being slow to reply, slow to respond, and slow to assume, and how we all need to do more of it.

Seth: Newsletter | Twitter | Instagram | Website

Tsh: Newsletter | Twitter | Instagram | Website

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Tsh’s Rule of Life workshop

Ancient Nutrition Bone Broth

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Atlas Obscura Podcast

Scroll down for the transcript

Tsh: This is A Drink With a Friend, I’m Tsh Oxenreider.

Seth: And I’m Seth Haines.

Tsh: Seth, what are you drinking this afternoon? 

Seth: Have you ever heard of Ancient Nutrition?

Tsh: No. I’ve heard of those two words. 

Seth: The brand Ancient Nutrition. Yes, you know ancient and you know nutrition. The is a brand called Ancient Nutrition and they make bone broth. Powdered bone broth. 

Tsh: Oh yeah.

Seth: Today, I was noticing I was a little low on my protein intake which is to say a lot low. I need a lot of protein. I went to Ozark Natural Foods which is our local co-op, our local Whole Foods competitor. I try to go there any time I can instead of Whole Foods. I picked up a packet of Ancient Nutrition Chocolate Bone Broth that tastes amazing! 

Tsh: Okay! This comes full circle to a few episodes ago when you talked about anything chocolate and healthy is terrible. 

Seth: I know. Someone on A Drink With a Friend that sponsors the drinks has recommended some things which I have not gotten around to trying but in preparation for today while I was at ONF looking for high protein foods, I saw this and it was chocolate flavored and it was $3 and it had 20 grams of protein, less than sugar, very few carbs. I thought I’m going to try this and while I drink it on the air I’m going to report to the people about whether it’s good or terrible as all healthful chocolate things are terrible, this is kind of amazing. 

Tsh: Nice. I’m literally looking it up right now.

Seth: I mixed it in, it recommends 12 ounces, it would probably be better, but I mixed it in 16 ounces of hot water. It would be super amazing in hot cashew milk or almond milk. 

Tsh: That’s great to know because bone broth drinks are expensive so to me, $3 is not that bad. 

Seth: Well, for a packet. I use it as a meal supplement so I think the bigger tub of it is quite expensive but still amazing. If you use it as a snack or a supplement, I highly recommend it.

Tsh: Very cool.

Seth: I’m assuming I know what you’re drinking because you texted me before we went on that you were running a few minutes late because you were making your drink which is…

Tsh: Coffee. Black coffee. I don’t drink coffee that much when we talk because I can’t do caffeine after 2 pm but this is 1 pm so I can still do it, I’m in the window. It’s just my standard Cafe Creole Ethiopian coffee that’s just good. It’s nothing fancy but it’s really good coffee from the grocery store. I actually added a cinnamon stick because I was just reading cinnamon in the nutritional benefits so I’m just tossing it in there. I am actually testing out a theory. After we record, I’m going to take a 15-minute nap. I was just watching this YouTuber talk about the weird unknown effects of taking a power nap after drinking coffee and that it does something or other that I can’t remember and I’m going to test to see if it’s complete sh*t or if he’s telling the truth. We’ll see. I’ve never been able to take good naps but I’m desperate for some sleep. 

Seth: Can you report back?

Tsh: I will report back. 

Seth: Interestingly you said, the amazing health benefits of a cinnamon stick and I don’t know what that even means. 

Tsh: It’s like digestion, mental clarity, and what is that called? The bio-gut stuff. Whatever that’s called. It promotes healthy bacteria growth, the good bacteria and not the bad bacteria. That is a very scientific way of explaining what I just said. 

Seth: That sounds pretty amazing. Maybe I need to get eat a cinnamon stick today. 

Tsh: Don’t do that. That’s probably toxic or something. We are not doctors. 

Seth: Yes, that’s right.

Tsh: We’re kicking off, I don’t know if you want to call this a series because they’re basically not non-sequiturs so in my mind they are kind of a series. This week and next week, we’re going to talk about these two ideas we’ve had on our minds. Today, what’s been on my mind because it’s been on my mind all week, is this idea of slow. This is not new. I’ve talked about slow and moving slowly through life frequently in many different places so I’m kind of reinventing the wheel here except I want to talk about it in a slightly different way. The thing that’s got me thinking about this is my current workout routine. I’ve been walking about six miles a day for the past seventeen days. Today’s my eighteenth day of walking six miles a day. 

Seth: Wow, that’s amazing. How long does that take you to walk? 

Tsh: Believe it or not, not as much as you think. Here’s the thing, I don’t do it in one sitting. I do it all throughout the day. I’m very grateful to live in a very walkable neighborhood. I’ve made this commitment post-Lent to walk anywhere a mile or less and so I’ve just been walking everywhere. I take a morning walk, afternoon, and evening walk but then I sometimes just get up and walk around the block. It’s for mental clarity in a lot of ways but also for a lot of other health benefits. And it’s really been a net positive for me. I was doing some reading about it. We all just know walking is good for us but here’s the thing, it’s really slow, that’s a big duh, but it’s a slow form of working out and it doesn’t feel like you’re doing a lot. It feels like you’re doing the thing you’ve done since you were eighteen months old. It’s gotten me thinking about what does it look like to move slower through life. I’ve been thinking about three different ways that I think we can all move a little slower. Before I get into those three things, unpack with me a little bit, Seth, what does slow look like for you right now? Are you able to be slow at all in any capacity in your life at the moment? 

Seth: Yeah, in some capacities. I juggle a lot of hats from a courier perspective mostly because I’ve made now two career shifts in the last two years. One away from the practice of law and one back into the practice of law so I’ve had to juggle both of those transitions. I’m in the middle of one of those transitions right now. From a business perspective, I always feel like my hair is on fire. Everything moves so fast. The practice of law moves pretty fast anyway. The content development and coaching and book editing and writing move pretty fast, too, with the kind of work that I do in that space. My day feels pretty fast. In the last few months, I’ve really been focused on, we’ve talked about this before, I’ve been doing CrossFit now for almost a year and I’ve been focused on not just doing CrossFit but then building some endurance work on top of that that is intentionally steady state cardio which because I’m forty-three is much slower than when I was twenty-three. I have been intentionally seeking a slower rhythm and slower pace probably four to five times a week. Whether that’s by sitting on a rower and just clocking off forty-five minutes or whether that’s going on a long run to have that slower state cardio. That slow time is really helpful for me because it pulls me away from that breakneck speed and I find, actually yesterday, I had a slow row day and there was this issue I was having a hard time unlocking. Within ten minutes, I texted the answer to somebody. That slow, slowing down, being disconnected from the internet, being connected really only to yourself and your thoughts has been really helpful for me. I really have to seek it out. I am not as good at it probably as you are. I would love to hear more about your journey into slowness. But before, I have a couple of technical questions. 

Tsh: Okay.

Seth: One, is your morning, afternoon, and evening walk for mileage?

Tsh: It’s for steps officially but I also look at the mileage so I’ve got a Fitbit, our whole family has them now, actually. I wanted to track a number of things but yes, technically it is. I walk our dog most of those walks and I just keep track. I officially check for 10,000 steps a day but it roughly checks out at four to six miles a day what I end up clocking. I go for mileage.

Seth: That was my second question, is how many steps is six miles?

Tsh: 10,000 steps for me equal to about four miles. 15,000 steps get northward of six. The reason I’m going to switch to looking at more miles, now that I’ve got in the habit, it feels weird, eighteen days in a row of doing 10,000 plus steps, it feels normal to me. The thing I’ve thought about is everybody’s steps are different, right? 

Seth: Right.

Tsh: My gait is a lot shorter than Kyle’s because I’m a foot shorter than him. But five miles is five miles. That’s why I’m using that as a metric more probably in the near future. 

Seth: Those are my two questions. Miles and steps. I think that’s good when we’re talking about slow exercise or slowness in general, but with slow exercise, I think one of the things is having a consistent metric. When I think of rowing, for instance, yesterday I rowed a 10K and it took me forty-five minutes but I’m also really long and generate a lot of leverage and so somebody who rowing next to me and rowing a 10K who might be shorter, maybe like you, would have to pull a whole lot more and so the amount of energy generated isn’t quite the same. That’s why a lot of times people will say run for time, pull for time, and row for time when you’re doing these slower cardio, steady-state cardio events. I like the idea of saying let’s pick a metric that is the [inaudible] same and do that.

Tsh: Yeah, for sure. For me, one of the things I’ve noticed the past few weeks is I started off doing it for the physical health benefits but the mental health and the emotional health have been right there with it to where that’s one of the reasons why it starts feeling weird to me to not walk as much. Let’s say I get closer to 10K versus 15K, I can feel the steps. I can feel it. For me, the gains have been mostly mental because let’s face it, I’m not sore after walking six miles, it’s not hard. It really is not. But the mental clarity and the emotional clarity have been so great and here’s the reason. Our bodies release cortisol when we work out, that’s just how they do it. Women, in particular, release more cortisol than men and that’s the stress hormone. We need that stress hormone. It’s not about getting rid of cortisol but it’s about having it released at the right times or for the right reasons. Right now, I’m trying to lower my cortisol levels because I’m trying to get better sleep and I’m trying to work on my mental health, my constant monkey brain. I need to lower my cortisol levels and walking is a great way to do it because it’s one of the only forms of active working out that lower cortisol level, not elevates it. That’s why I feel like the mental and emotional benefits have been really solid for me. That’s where I want to park on because as much as we like to talk about fitness and we will continue to, I think we all can relate a little bit to thinking slower and maybe reacting a little slower to the things in our life. We’ve all been through a global pandemic and I think most of us have experienced a slowing down of our life in the past twelve months because of our calendars, that they have emptied. I don’t know about you, Seth, but that was to me, probably the best benefit of something like this that has not been a good thing. I have welcomed the lowered expectations of me needing to be somewhere at a certain time and having to run all over town to take kids places, stuff like that. It’s been a really nice slowing down in that department. 

Seth: I agree with you 100%. We were talking the other night about how there was a moment early in the pandemic when my business on one front slowed down so much that I was actually concerned. But by the same token, we were eating out zero, we were going zero, we were driving zero, and we started realizing maybe we’re losing a little bit of money but we’re also saving a ton of money just as a result of the slowness. Then we started realizing we’re more connected, we’re spending more time together, we see each other just because the pace of life had slowed down so much. Over the last six months, it’s slowly creeped up and I miss some of those things, some of that slow time. I just miss it. 

Tsh: Yeah, I do too. This is for me why it’s a benefit to do something like walk because you can claim it. Walking is completely not efficient. You don’t get anywhere quickly when you walk. If I choose to walk to the pharmacy to pick up a prescription or to the library to pick up a book, by walking I’m intentionally taking the harder, slower, more methodical route. But I welcome the space. Many times I listen to an audiobook or a podcast but I’m also really and truly embracing the being with my thoughts, especially in the Spring when I can hear birds and wind and things like that and I don’t want to miss them. 

What’s been on my mind is this idea that we can all collectively understand, three different ways that we can embrace a more sacramental nature of slow and it all has to do with response. Responding to the world around us. The first one, and I’m curious what you think, Seth. Actually, while I pull it up, I’m pulling up a tweet that I retweeted. I didn’t write it but I loved it, I read it last week. How quickly do you respond to email?

Seth: I’m not super great at it. Some of it is that I put parameters around my time. If you shoot me a business email that’s non-urgent after hours I’m not going to respond. Period. End of story. Until business hours. There are exceptions to that. I have a client who will periodically text me something and he’s in a different time zone and will text and say I know it’s after hours but will you look at the email, then yeah. I will do that. I am probably an efficient responder to emails but I’m not always timely because I don’t respond after hours. I’m pretty slow. 

Tsh: I’m very slow. No one will give me an award for inbox zero, ever. I saw this tweet, it’s by a guy named Mark Sparrow, I don’t know who it is but just says, 

“Best email signature ever: It is normal for me to take a couple of days to read my emails and several more days to reflect on the matter and respond in a calm manner. The culture of immediacy and the constant fragmentation of time are not compatible with the kind of life I lead.” 

Seth: That’s amazing. 

Tsh: I know. It feels a little stick it to the man-ish. I can see how somebody can read it and think who are you to say that this is not compatible with the life you lead? I need an answer ASAP. But I really like this because I think the point of an email signature like this is saying, listen, these things you are putting in my inbox, you’re not owed a quick response. Someone even commented below that when they started work in the early 90s it was just a normal practice to not respond to a letter within two weeks. This sudden expectation for a same day, sometimes same hour response is just not realistic. I once heard my favorite definition of an email inbox, it was like a to-do list from somebody else, or a to-do list for someone else’s time. I forget how they said it. Basically, it’s people wanting things from you most of the time. For me, I really like this idea of embracing a slow to reply posture. I’ve done this for a long time. I’ve had this no-need-to-reply practice to my emails but to me, I feel like this might be an encouragement to anyone listening that there is perhaps not as urgent a need to reply to that email, to that Slack message, to that text, to that request to volunteer at your kid’s end of the year banquet, all these things that you have permission to think it over before you reply to something like that.

Seth: It seems to me that one of the benefits of your walking practice, if I’m thinking of it in practical terms, is if I were to walk more everywhere I went and an email came across on my way to the library, 1) I might not even see it unless I’m looking at my phone if I’m walking which feels antithetical to the whole point; but 2) even if you did receive it, are you going to stop on the side of the road and sit there and type it out with your thumbs? Probably not. It feels like even when you’re talking about this, and maybe this is part of your initial point, is that as you go on these walks and as you slow down, the tyranny of the urgent actually can’t reach out and grab you by the throat. 

Tsh: 100%. That’s one of the great beauties of this. I think just being outside at minimum is this invitation to detach from the ability to be immediate. In fact, I have been tempted by the idea of leaving my phone, which I know sounds like, just leave your phone, what’s the big deal? But for me, because of the audiobook/podcast tethering, I haven’t done it and I’ve been more reluctant but I think I’m going to try. Here’s the thing. I barely check my email on the phone anyway but I’m still reachable. I still could be reached. That is one of the great beauties of a slower posture is intentionally making it inconvenient, let’s just say, to reply quickly to things in life. 

Seth: That’s sort of a side practice. I’ve heard people talk about this with respect to social media. How do you slow down the onslaught of social media and social media demands on your time? Responding to every comment on any, choose your platform, or making sure that you post on, choose your platform, which is all pretty vacuous stuff, if we’re being super honest. Although my beautiful thing that I’m going to share today is literally an Instagram profile. Anyway, that aside, I have often heard it said that if you want to live a slower life, if you want to not be dragged into the tyranny of the urgent, then make it more difficult to get to [insert the platform], your Instagram, your Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, whatever the next thing is, make it inconvenient. 

Tsh: Yeah, add some friction there. I don’t have Twitter on my phone. I currently have Instagram on my phone because I was working on a thing. But for a better part of the pandemic, I deleted it and only downloaded it on Friday’s and that was fantastic to where I had to intentionally go and download it, re-sign in, retell it yes, you can have access to my photo library, and it was really good for me because I wouldn’t just mindlessly scroll when I was waiting at a checkout line. But I could still access it on my laptop but there’s something a little more intentional about opening up your laptop and that’s the same with Twitter. That’s actually a nice segue to my second form of being slow and that’s a flip side of the same coin, and that’s being slow to respond, which I know is similar to slow to reply. It’s this idea that something in this culture of ours has dictated that we should respond to situations right away if we’re to be good people. I made the foolish decision the other day to scroll through my unsubscribe messages, why people unsubscribe from my email. I never do that. I know not to do that.

Seth: A bad idea. 

Tsh: It’s never helpful. It’s like looking at book reviews. They’re not helpful for me.

Seth: It’s actually like going and asking people that hate you why they hate you to their face. Just let it go, who cares? It doesn’t matter. 

Tsh: I don’t care why you’ve unsubscribed. But this one person unsubscribed from me because I did not respond to a current newsworthy event that happened not too long ago. I didn’t make a statement in my weekly email and so she decided that was worth an unsubscribe and worth telling me. Here’s the thing. I didn’t even know what happened because I closed up all these links because I had a book deadline. I literally did not know what happened. My silence was for a reason. But here’s the thing, even if I did know what happened, if I didn’t reply to it, that doesn’t make me a bad person. If anything, it simply made me a person who needed to think or maybe let other people who are wiser than me or have more ownership in the issue or stake in the issue, speak about the thing. I just find it interesting that we live in this world that says if you’re remotely online, which is honestly all of us, most people have chosen to be on social media if they’re listening to a podcast, that you need to say something. I just think that’s really, really weird. I don’t like it.

Seth: Yesterday, I was watching some awkward Mark Zukerberg moments. That was the title of the YouTube video clip. I was actually looking for something to make this meta-joke. This is all getting really weird, what I’m about to tell you. I was looking for a clip to make a meta-joke on Instagram in a Reels post. It was going to be this really snarky meta-joke about Reels themselves. 

Tsh: Got it.

Seth: I started looking for awkward moments of Mark Zukerberg and I happened to run into this one and he was before Congress and they were asking him questions and they said something like, Mr. Zukerberg, you’re not from here, you flew into DC to talk to us, would you mind telling us publicly where you stayed last night? He just stood there and laughed and said, no. Then they asked, would you mind telling us where you ate dinner last night? He said, no, I don’t really want to do that either. They said would you at least tell us how much money you spent on dinner last night? He said no, I don’t really want to do that either. They said, yet, you’re providing this platform that encourages those people to do all of these things immediately. Everybody got a good chuckle out of it. He got a good chuckle out of it, too. The point held, was that we feel the need to instantly tell everybody everything about us just because we can. That feels bonkers and then when you bring that into a news response scenario, it gets really tricky because, in the last week and a half, three major news outlets have had to come out and say we missed a story. We missed it, we misreported, we gave some bad facts, we correct those facts, here are the facts. Facts are still bad but they were reported inaccurately. If you had spent the time to immediately respond to the inaccurate facts, then are you going to go back and immediately respond to the correction? It’s a cycle that never ends and there are some things that just demand a lot more thought. On top of those two things, I look at some of the issues that make major news cycles these days and I think about systemic racism, which is in my opinion, a very real thing, a very terrible thing, that needs to be dismantled in the United States. 

Tsh: Yep.

Seth: And in my local town. 

Tsh: Yeah.

Seth: I know people who are doing amazing work in the realm of really dismantling these systems who are not on social media and who are very quietly doing amazing work. I would rather continue to watch them do amazing work than jump on to social media and always have to have a response. I’ve always felt like there are times that you do need to immediately say something if you know about it. Come out and say the thing, be clear, be honest, be who you are. But also, that’s no substitute for doing really good quiet work that no one ever knows about. That is slow. That is not instant.

Tsh: Exactly. That actually brings me perfectly to the third point, which is being slow to assume. 

Seth: Yeah.

Tsh: People are nuanced and the Internet, by and large, is not. People are three-dimensional, our screens are two-dimensional. It is hard to pick up on, not only tone and rhetoric but also what’s not being said. Someone’s silence could very well be because they’re doing the on-the-ground, un-sexy, hard work of dismantling racism or sexism or poverty or whatever the issue is, in their local community and it is a better use of their gifts and resources and energy than having some kind of public statement in a tweet. Even when we’re not talking about issues or newsworthy events, just looking at somebody online, looking at their body of work, and deciding why it may or may not be for you. To bring it back again to those unsubscribes, I noticed a few other people had mentioned that they decided to unsubscribe once they heard that we had joined the Catholic Church as a family, which is a whole other thing which maybe we can get to later on this podcast. The reason is that they assume that because we have basically put ourselves under the authority of the Catholic Church, then it means we believe and feel A, B, and C about a certain type of person, a certain belief, a certain you name it. They’re jumping to this huge conclusion based on this one thing they know about me and they don’t know me, really. Here’s what it comes down to, I have messed up their idea of who they want me to be. Or I’ve messed with their version that they want about me and because I am not offering that now, they’ve been given another piece of information they don’t know what to do with it and they just decided they can’t have it. Here’s the thing. I am all for the act of unsubscribing whenever you just flat out can’t have something in your life for whatever certain reason. People are not for everyone and that’s completely fine. I follow a podcast that I learn a lot from. I really do not like this podcaster’s politics at all. We are on very opposite ends of the political spectrum but I still subscribe to his podcast because I can learn from him and I appreciate that his posture is one of humility and he is nuanced and I appreciate that. Let’s be slow to assume.

Seth: Again, part of the work of slowness and the work of slowly getting to know yourself and being comfortable with yourself and who you are, means that when people make snap judgments about you and you have clarity about who you are, what you believe, and what you’re about, what you’re supposed to be about, some of those things just roll off your back a little bit differently. If you have the confidence of someone who has done the slow, hard work and continues to do the slow, hard work and continues to change, and be open to new ideas and move in different ways, then some of that stuff can just float away. I will ask because I think it’s a fascinating question, were the assumptions, based on your joining of the Catholic Church, were there both conservative and liberal people who assumed quasi opposite things about you as a result? 

Tsh: 100%. It’s fascinating to me. I think maybe this is why the Catholic Church can feel so uncomfortable to people because it’s so old it doesn’t fit into anybody’s modern categories. It does a great job of pissing off both the liberals and the conservatives. It’s uncomfortable for me. There are some things that I’m like, ehhhhh, I don’t know. 

Seth: Because you’re human!

Tsh: Exactly, that’s what we’re saying, right? Of course, this is just one example of nuance. I’m not at all implying that this is the book of where nuance lies. We can be nuanced and not be Catholic. This is just my reality at the moment. I’m rattling people’s ideas of who they thought I was. They thought because I promoted candidate X, then, of course, I must believe this way theologically. Or because I make these decisions about my kids’ education then, of course, I also think these other things. Nobody is one way. We are all just a mixed bag of stuff. I can’t think of what it is. 

Seth: I took some of that heat. Amber and I took some of that heat after the election. Go look through my profiles. I was very clear. I’ll just say to the listener here, I voted for Joe Biden. I very much supported Joe Biden. Not because I agree with everything Joe Biden says and certainly not because I consider myself a Democrat. But I felt like we were at an imperative point in American history and I felt like, of the two candidates, there was one candidate that could get us where we needed to go out of that imperative moment at least head us in the right direction, point us in the right direction. Does that mean that I’m 100% pro-abortion? No. Not at all. 

Tsh: Exactly.

Seth: I’ve been very, very clear about that. Yet, I took heat from people saying that same thing. How could you ever support abortion? That’s not what I was doing. I think part of the problem, and this is not to make it about politics. I have very good friends who will vote another way and I’m still very close friends with them and will continue to be. Typically when we get in a room I can vehemently disagree with their political opinion and we can still find common ground where we still love each other and still have productive conversations but that is primarily because we’re in relationship not because we’re in this weird subscriber/consumer/producer relationship. I think once we start to commodify each other and impute meaning to each other that maybe not warranted or not fair and in that commodity turn sour or disappoints then it’s really easy to throw the commodity away and say Tsh, you’re a commodity, I’m done with you. Seth, you’re a commodity, I’m done with you. I do this to people, too. I’m a human too, so I have done this, too. I think part of what we have to get back to, again, back to your slowness, we have to get back to the slow art of paying attention. We talked about this a little bit with other writers, the art of paying attention a few years back. I don’t know if you remember that. That’s the primary work of the writer. I think that’s actually the primary work of the writer because it’s the primary work of the human. Paying attention. Slowing down. Listening to each other. Not being so quick to throw each other away. Listen, like you said, if I’m not for you, please go find the person that’s for you. I’m totally cool with that. You’re not hurting my feelings but don’t throw your assumptions on me. 

Tsh: Exactly. I think that seeing is the act of being sacramental. This morning I heard this fantastic definition of sacramentality, which is simply seeing the world as it really is. Since we like to talk about that here and since this episode, in particular, is about slowness, just to bring it full circle. We have a neighbor down the street, who during the election had all sorts of signs in their yard for the opposite candidate our family had signs in our yard for, or at least that we were voting for, they were Trump supporters, basically. They felt compelled to put signs out in their yard for that. I admit that I was probably quick to judge what they might have been like as people. Fast forward, in my walking habit, I nearly every day past their house. It is a sweet older couple who have a fantastic backyard garden that I can see because it’s a corner lot. They are the nicest people. They say hello. They talk about our dog. Our neighbor across the street who drives a Harley, he’s been over there. I’ve seen him in their garage chit-chatting. They are beacons of the neighborhood because they’ve been here a long time. I’ve really grown to appreciate who they are as people, just a sweet older couple. For me, that’s my lesson. These people are nuanced and I slowed down enough to walk past their house and recognize that and I don’t think I would have if I just drove by their house all the time. 

Seth: I think that is key for this moment in our country, is just being slow enough to actually get to know each other as people not as avatars, not as thoughts or ideas on a screen. One of the things Amber and I have been talking about, we’ve actually talked about it on this podcast, Amber and I have been talking about why do Instagram quotables work to drive audience engagement? I just freaking refuse to do it. I refuse to do it. I know it would be good for my audience but I cannot do it. The reason I think that I push so much against it is just the instant gratification of quotable words in a moment that don’t make us wrestle with the meaning of an image. Some of what I’m going to share today in what is beautiful to me right now is an artist who is legitimately the viewer wrestle with the art of an image and it takes time. You can’t necessarily impute meaning and it’s important. 

Tsh: Go ahead and tell us about this then because that was going to be my next question is what’s adding beauty to your life. Tell me more. 

Seth: There’s an account called @findinginterestingpeople. I actually sent you the link so that while we’re talking you can pull it up, maybe.

Tsh: I’m pulling it up right now. 

Seth: If you look, it’s just black and white street photography by I think a female artist who’s just capturing the world through her lens. Every one of these photos is either an interesting composition or an interesting person and it really makes you stop and say, what is the story of that photograph. Again, you have to slow down and stop and look at these photos and spend time with them and say what is it about this that’s compelling? And they’re all compelling to me. 

Tsh: These are fantastic. First of all, it’s in New York, which has so many street images that it’s just interesting to those of us that don’t live in that environment. I love that she’s done black and white and I like that it’s not quotes. I agree. These are real photos. 

Seth: I don’t know why, my assumption is that it’s a woman and I’m not 100% sure why because I’m looking at the profile and it doesn’t really say that. What is super interesting is that I’ve already made an assumption based on these images and the way that these images have been captured makes me think this is a female looking at the world. Even that is just a fascinating assumption on my part.

Tsh: You’re the one that really gave me that idea last year about thinking of Instagram more as a museum and it has made me hate it so much less. I’m not yet at the point where I like it. I don’t think I like it as much as you but I don’t hate it like I used to, so I appreciate it. 

Seth: The curation has made the world of difference in my life. 

Tsh: Yeah. That’s very cool. It’s like visual poetry.

Seth: 100%. I actually talked about this in my last newsletter because I’ve been having such a hard time writing. What I have found is that if I can find the right image, it somehow unlocks the words. These last three to four weeks of just having a real struggle writing, it’s unlocking words for me. 

Tsh: That’s really cool. I think it’s funny, I went to my homepage and it’s literally @#!%. It is jarring. I’m unfollowing right now. 

Seth: You’ve got to mute those things. What you should do is, Kyle, put a big long beep there and then me coming back and saying, you’ve got to mute those things. 

Tsh: That’s a good idea. Do that, Kyle.

Seth: What are you listening to, watching, reading, that is making your life a little bit more good, true, beautiful?

Tsh: Right now, it is a new-to-me podcast that I did not know existed because I thought they just did written stuff. Have you heard of the website Atlas Obscura? 

Seth: No.

Tsh: I think you would like it. It’s a great travel website but apparently, they do a podcast and I started bingeing on this podcast the past week and it is a delight. One of the reasons I like it is because each episode is only fifteen minutes long. There’s a place for shorter podcasts and I’m here for it. It is a podcast about the weird obscure, unknown places around the world that would never make a travel guide or you would walk by and never know. The first episode I listened to was from a few weeks ago and it was called Brooklyn Latrine and it was about this buried latrine before there was indoor plumbing in this guy’s backyard. It’s really well produced. The sound is great. It’s like reporting but it’s reporting about mundane things that we walk by and I thought it was perfect for this particular episode of talking about slow and walking because it feels like they discovered these things by going on walks and unpacking these unknown places. There’s one about a sourdough library. 

Seth: What??

Tsh: Yeah. There’s the one about this tiny little place in Malawi. There’s a thousand-year-old rose somewhere. There’s a thing about communist mummies. Snake dens. There are just really cool, tiny, little, weird, bizarre places. I feel like it’s a great audio form of armchair travel. If you’re feeling the itch to get the heck out of dodge because of this pandemic and you still just can’t, this is a really good podcast for that. Two thumbs up for me. I’m glad to have found a new travel podcast. 

Seth: That sounds pretty amazing. I’m going to have to listen to that. 

Tsh: It’s really good. I think listeners of this show, if you like our show, you’ll probably like this show. 

Seth: That’s awesome.

Tsh: It’s time to wrap up this episode. You can find this episode, as well as all episodes, at adrinkwithafriend.com. It’s also where you can sign up for our new Substack space for the show, where we have plans for some pretty great extra stuff for you, and it’s also where you can support this show for just a few bucks. If you like what we’re bringing to your earbuds, we are almost 100% listener-supported and we like it that way — so again, all this is at adrinkwithafriend.com and in the show notes of this episode. You can find me and all my work at tshoxenreider.com — Seth, where can people find you?

Seth: sethaines.com and like last week, follow me over on Instagram @sethhaines.

Tsh: You’re doing good work there. I appreciate it.

Seth: Thanks, I appreciate it. I’m really excited about the next photo that I’m going to release which I found on my phone, taken in Kansas City in 2017. You will see it probably by the time this episode goes out. 

Tsh: Very cool. Look forward to it. Music for the show is by Kevin MacLeod, editing is by Kyle Oxenreider, and Caroline TeSelle is our transcriber and assistant extraordinaire. I’m Tsh Oxenreider, and Seth and I will be back here with you soon. Thanks for listening.

Subscribe at drink.substack.com

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We all know we’re supposed to care about the environment — but what does that look like with a sacramental posture? And what do we do about it besides tossing our plastic and cardboard in the recycling bin? Seth and Tsh admit their own challenges while recognizing the need to do more — sanely. After all, the other two Rs are more effective than the third.

• Seth: Newsletter | Website


• Tsh: Newsletter | Website


• Pick up a round of drinks & help keep the show going


• Come to Italy with us!


• 
  

  Praise Be to You - Laudato Si’, by Pope Francis

  
  


• 
  

  Why You Should Quit Recycling

  
  


• 
  

  We Tried Going Zero Waste for a Month: Here’s What Happened, by WheezyWaiter

  
  


• 
  

  Silence, by Shusaku Endo

  
  

 

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After some tragic news a few weeks ago about a friend of Seth’s, he and Tsh unpack what it means to live in our current reality of isolation. So many people are lonely, hurting, or have lost their way, and the best and truest solution is community. Community is the conduit for hope. No one needs to be alone. Let’s fight for hope because it’s literal life or death for some of us. There is genuine sacramental beauty in reaching out to other people.

• Seth: Newsletter | Website


• Tsh: Newsletter | Website


• Pick up a round of drinks & help keep the show going


• Come to Italy with us!


• 
  

  Family Furnishings: Selected Stories, by Alice Munro

  
  


• 
  

  Rest, by Alex Soojung-Kim Pang

  
  

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Tsh was on a crazy-tight book deadline this week, so in this episode, Seth is talking to none other than his wife Amber! She shares her morning routine when the day’s going well: daily examen, prayer, poetry, and the things she does to get her creative juices flowing. If you need some inspiration for your own morning routine and you’re hankering for a good old-fashioned Southern drawl that makes you smile, you need this conversation.

• Seth: Newsletter | Website


• Amber: Instagram | Website


• Tsh: Newsletter | Website


• Pick up a round of drinks & help keep the show going


• Come to Italy with us!


• 
  

  Selected Stories of Anton Chekov

  
  


• 
  

  Survival is a Style: Poems, by Christian Wiman

  
  


• 
  

  Sara Billups on Instagram

  
  


• 
  

  Heather King

  
  


• 
  

  Ophelia, by Roo Panes

  
  

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St. Benedict of Nursia created a rule of life for his monastic community, and over a thousand years later we still look to it for inspiration. In this episode, Tsh walks Seth through a method of creating his own personal rule, one that he can tweak and adjust for the rest of his life — and you, dear listener, can do the same. After all, a Rule of Life is simply “a commitment to live your life in a particular way,” which means it’s a stellar tool for helping you say yes and no to the right things. Tsh has been leaning into this practice since 2014.

• Seth: Newsletter | Website


• Tsh: Newsletter | Website


• Pick up a round of drinks & help keep the show going


• Come to Italy with us!


• 
  

  Tsh’s Rule of Life workshop

  
  


• 
  

  The Chosen

  
  


• 
  

  Courtney Dauwalter documentaries: The Source of the Will and An Almost Perfect Race

  
  

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What could be said of Good Friday that hasn’t been said for thousands of years? Today is a day for listening more than talking, for hearing from God more than telling God all we know. Today is a day of mystery, and it’s good for us to sit in the mystery without constantly searching for answers. Seth & Tsh reflect on the goodness that Jesus is God and they are not.

• Seth: Newsletter | Website


• Tsh: Newsletter | Website


• Pick up a round of drinks & help keep the show going


• Come to Italy with us!


• 
  

  A Swim in a Pond in the Rain, by George Saunders

  
  


• 
  

  Orphan Train, by Christina Baker Kline

  
  

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We know what FOMO is — but what about FONO? We’ve all been going through the same collective experience with the pandemic, but as it hopefully winds down (🤞), we might all go through a somewhat surprising form of re-entry (similar to a cross-cultural experience). Seth and Tsh unpack what it means to be hesitant to return to normalcy, knowing full-well that there really is no going back to it. What does it mean to live in a post-pandemic world? And what good stuff can we take with us from our lockdown lives?

• Seth: Newsletter | Website


• Tsh: Newsletter | Website


• Pick up a round of drinks & help keep the show going


• Come to Italy with us!


• Zero Waste Home, by Bea Johnson


• Chasing Excellence with Ben Bergeron

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Why does good writing matter, and why does the motive behind the writing matter? Seth and Tsh unpack the previous episode’s topic with Seth’s editor, Stephanie Duncan Smith. The three of them talk about what makes for good reading and writing, why we need better (new) stories, and with Stephanie’s business perspective, the sacramental act of bleeding on paper. This chat’s not just for writers.

• Seth: Newsletter | Website


• Tsh: Newsletter | Website


• Stephanie Duncan Smith: Newsletter | Twitter | Instagram


• Pick up a round of drinks & help keep the show going


• Come to Italy with us!


• 
  

  City on Fire, by Garth Risk Hallberg

  
  


• 
  

  Stranger Planet, by Nathan W. Pyle

  
  


• 
  

  Sara Billups on Instagram

  
  


• 
  

  The Year of Magical Thinking, by Joan Didion

  
  


• 
  

  The Goldfinch, by Donna Tartt

  
  


• 
  

  Escaping Into the Open, by Elizabeth Berg

  
  


• 
  

  A Burning in My Bones, by Winn Collier

  
  

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Seth and Tsh are primarily writers; it’s the craft they know best and the work they love most. In this chat, they use the art of writing as a springboard to talk about the art of doing all sorts of creativity just for the sake of doing it, for the love of its beauty. Woodworking, music, gardening, even business and other forms of work… We all need to create beauty in our lives for its own sake. How do we balance the work necessary — and the need to earn a living — with the sheer beauty of why we love it in the first place?

• Seth: Newsletter | Website


• Tsh: Newsletter | Website


• Pick up a round of drinks & help keep the show going


• Come to Italy with us!


• 
  

  Leisure: The Basis of Culture, by Josef Pieper

  
  


• 
  

  Chef’s Table - Season 3, Episode 1

  
  


• 
  

  A Burning in My Bones, by Winn Collier

  
  


• 
  

  Heather King’s blog

  
  


• 
  

  Murder Among the Mormons

  
  


• 
  

  The Daily Poem podcast - Wendell Berry’s Sabbath Poem III episode

  
  

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Tsh is joined by none other than her husband, Kyle! He’s the general contractor of their own fixer-upper renovation, so in this chat they talk about the hidden beauty found behind old walls and wires. What does it mean to live in your own 1935 renovation project that’s taking four years (and counting)? There are lessons everywhere about knowing your land, knowing your walls, and doing the dirty work so your family can live congruent with your values.

• Seth: Newsletter | Website


• Tsh: Newsletter | Website


• Pick up a round of drinks & help keep the show going


• Come to Italy with us!


• 
  

  GK Chesterton’s quote

  
  


• 
  

  Gone podcast from Parcast

  
  


• 
  

  Garden Answers on YouTube

  
  

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thecommon.place/subscribe

(Bonus points if you get this episode title’s reference…) We all have to do it, and even many of the super-wealthy still choose to do it — clearly, it’s not just about bringing home a paycheck. But why bother working well? How do we find meaning in the thing we spend a whole heckuva lot of our waking hours doing? It goes far beyond holding a title of significance or having some surface form of influence.

• Seth: Newsletter | Website


• Tsh: Newsletter | Website


• Pick up a round of drinks & help keep the show going


• Come to Italy with us!


• 
  

  Shirt of Flame: A Year with St. Therese of Lisieux, by Heather King

  
  


• 
  

  "Against Decoration," by Mary Karr (reprinted in Viper Rum)

  
  


• 
  

  WandaVision on Disney+

  
  

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thecommon.place/subscribe

Seth is in Arkansas and Tsh is in Texas, which means this week they've been covered under a blanket of snow and ice. It took a while until they could even record at all, but once they did, they did a quick check-in before the power went out again, followed by a more leisurely chat about what it means to survive vs. thrive. What do moments like this — and even moments like the global pandemic — teach us about what it is we truly need to live another day?

• Seth: Newsletter | Website


• Tsh: Newsletter | Website


• Pick up a round of drinks & help keep the show going


• Come to Italy with us!


• 
  

  Shirt of Flame: A Year with St. Therese of Lisieux, by Heather King

  
  


• 
  

  It Is Right and Just, by Scott Hahn & Brandon McGinley

  
  

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How do we approach this new season of Lent when it still feels like Lent? We’ve globally experienced the longest Lent of our collective lives, and yet here we are, with Ash Wednesday once again in just a few days. Seth and Tsh talk about their own personal experiences, plus ways recognizing Lent can STILL be good and necessary for all of us.

• Seth: Newsletter | Website


• Tsh: Newsletter | Website


• Pick up a round of drinks & help keep the show going


• Come to Italy with us!


• 
  

  Goodbye Stranger, by Alanna Boudreau

  
  

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'Creator' the noun can collapse on its own weight, especially on the internet — but this word doesn't only apply to social media influencers, artists, or inventors. We're all creators. And, as Seth and Tsh are joined around the table by their friend, Haley Stewart, the three talk about whether we just might all be hard-wired in our nature to join in the act of creation more than participating in our culture's default of consumption.

• Seth: Newsletter | Website


• Tsh: Newsletter | Website


• Pick up a round of drinks & help keep the show going


• Come to Italy with us!


• 
  

  A Circle of Quiet (The Crosswicks Journals Book 1), by Madeleine L'Engle

  
  


• 
  

  The Summer of the Great-Grandmother (The Crosswicks Journals Book 2), by Madeleine L'Engle

  
  


• 
  

  The Irrational Season (The Crosswicks Journals Book 3), by Madeleine L'Engle

  
  


• 
  

  Two-Part Invention: The Story of a Marriage (The Crosswicks Journals Book 4), by Madeleine L'Engle

  
  


• 
  

  Walking on Water: Reflections on Faith and Art, by Madeleine L'Engle

  
  


• 
  

  Henri Cartier-Bresson: Photographer, by Henri Cartier-Bresson

  
  


• 
  

  Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver

  
  

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Dostoevsky said it will change the world. Confucius said everything has it, but not everyone sees it. Shakespeare, Plato, and others wondered if it was in the eye of the beholder. Beauty matters in our everyday lives; it’s not an extra “nice to have.” But where do we find it? What do we do with it? How does it affect our ordinary lives? And is it subjective or objective?

• Seth: Newsletter | Website


• Tsh: Newsletter | Website


• Pick up a round of drinks & help keep the show going


• Come to Italy with us!


• 
  

  Crystal Bridges

  
  


• 
  

  “Bad Art Warps Our Vision“, by Leah Libresco Sargeant

  
  


• 
  

  Sympathetic Magic, by Typhoon

  
  


• 
  

  They Make Me Cry Playlist

  
  

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thecommon.place/subscribe

We all KNOW we’re supposed to work out, but knowing that doesn’t make many of us do it. Seth and Tsh aren’t workout-obsessed, but as working parents in their early 40s who’d like to be around a good while, they’ve reaped the benefits of doing the hard work anyway. How do we find the motivation we need to keep moving, even when we don’t feel like it? Recognizing the sacramentality of our earthly bodies definitely helps.

• Seth: Newsletter | Website


• Tsh: Newsletter | Website


• Pick up a round of drinks & help keep the show going


• Come to Italy with us!


• 
  

  John Blase

  
  


• 
  

  Some Kind of Peace, by Ólafur Arnalds

  
  


• 
  

  The Repair Shop

  
  


• 
  

  Anglophenia

  
  

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thecommon.place/subscribe