The C-Nerds share updates on their lives. There's parenting, spiritual direction, balancing work and family life, and all the good things. The joys and struggles of raising children and family life ... and family deaths. Even Obi-Wan and the Jedi Communion of Saints make an appearance ... "Strike me down, Darth, and I will become more powerful than you can possibly imagine!"

Chapters

02:03 The Importance of Connection and Community

05:07 Parenting Insights and Spiritual Direction

11:07 Balancing Family Life and Personal Growth

17:05 Understanding Sleep Patterns and Parenting Dynamics

23:06 Work-Life Balance in Modern Parenting

27:58 Navigating Work-Life Balance

33:01 The Impact of Modern Convenience

39:05 Understanding Life and Death

45:07 The Role of the Communion of Saints

53:10 Final Thoughts and Reflections

Recent Blog Posts

• Talking about Trinitarian Baptism with Pentecostals, Matthew 28:19
• 33 Days to the Holy Family: Living a Pious Life (Substack article)

Takeaways

• Podcasting helps maintain connections among friends.
• Parenting is a journey filled with challenges and joys.
• Spiritual direction can enhance family life.
• Balancing work and family is a common struggle.
• Loss can deepen our understanding of faith.
• The Communion of Saints offers comfort in grief.
• Children can teach us about empathy and perspective.
• Maintaining a sense of humor is essential in parenting.
• It's important to prioritize family time over material pursuits.
• Faith provides a framework for understanding life's difficulties.

The Catholic Nerds are BACK with a new season, new episode, and NEW POPE! We go over all the following:

• Where were you when you saw the white smoke?
• Good Signs: Regina Caeli sung in Latin, dodging the rainbow flag, papal blessing in Latin
• All the people who predicted the name Pope Leo XIV

• The Louisiana and Creole ancestral roots of Cardinal Prevost, through the Holy Father’s great-great-great-grandfather Louis Charles Boucher de Grand Pré (1745-1809), Spanish colonial governor and militia leader
• The connection to Pope Leo XIII: Is the 100-year reign of Satan over? Feast of the Holy Family

Do you like board games? We do too! Especially when we can play them with our families. Well do we have a game to share with you! Cody, Erik and I got a chance to speak with Charlie McKinney, President of Sophia Institute Press. We spent a little time getting to know Charlie, where he is from and what exactly he does as president, and then we talked about Sophia's cool board game: The Journeys of St. Paul! Erik even set up the game on Roll20 so we could all play the game together!!! What an awesome interview!!! https://sophiainstitute.com/ Sophia products mentioned on the show https://sophiainstitute.com/product/journeys-of-st-paul/https://sophiainstitute.com/product/everythings-coming-up-rosie/https://sophiainstitute.com/product/the-habsburg-way/ Scott's Publishing Company https://www.holywaterbooks.com/ Codex Sinaiticus https://codexsinaiticus.org/en/manuscript.aspx Tokens used for our TTRPGs https://itch.io/profile/zeshio Do you want to bedeck yourself in your #1 galactic source for quality Catholic nerdery? Of course, you do! And now you can … Check out the C-Nerd ⁠T-Shirts and Merch⁠! Like the ⁠Catholic Nerds on Facebook⁠. Tweet us @NerdsCatholic Email us at ⁠catholicnerdpodcast1@gmail.com⁠ Also, check out Scott's ⁠e-course on the Virgin Mary⁠ at ⁠All Saints University⁠!

Hey! Its Erik Dumont going solo for this episode.

A while back, I met one of the coolest priests, so of course I had to get him on the show. I invited Fr. Tony Smela on for an interview to talk about his story of answering the call to the priesthood, as well as talking about our favorite subject: video games. He's got his own podcast too, so when you're done here, check out the Flint Catholic Podcast on Spotify as well as on Youtube.

Do you want to bedeck yourself in your #1 galactic source for quality Catholic nerdery? Of course, you do! And now you can … Check out the C-Nerd T-Shirts and Merch!

Like the Catholic Nerds on Facebook.

Tweet us @NerdsCatholic

Email us at catholicnerdpodcast1@gmail.com

Also, check out Scott's e-course on the Virgin Mary at All Saints University!

Recent posts from Scott's blog:

• Why You Should Wear the Brown Scapular: In Loving Memory of Fr. Otis Young and Ruth Prats
• The Consecration to St. Joseph for Children and Families: 33-Day Family Prayer Routine to Build Holier Families by Fr. Donald Calloway and Scott L. Smith
• The One Question to Convert All Protestants: Where Did The Bible Come From? Did Catholics Add Books to The Bible OR Did Protestants Remove Books from The Bible? The Truth About The Apocrypha
• Pray the Rosary with Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich: Emmerich's Revelations for the Mysteries of the Rosary

Just another epic Catholic Nerds Lord of the Rings nerd-out. No big deal. Except we were joined by Mr. Big Deal, himself, Bill Donaghy. Bill is the Senior Lecturer and Content Specialist of the Theology of the Body Institute (www.TOBinstitute.org), Co-Author of RISE (www.MenRiseUp.org), and Editor for STRIVE (www.STRIVE21.com).

Join us for a discussion on the beautiful sacramental quality of Tolkien's writings. Have you ever caught a glimpse of Middle-Earth out of the corner of your eye? Do you know what we mean? A glimpse of Heaven? The "gray-rain curtain" of this world thins for a moment, and you see the golden light of Heaven piercing the veil. Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich said that Eden was always just beyond her vision, but she caught a glimpse now and then. For Tolkien nerds like us, Middle-Earth will forever color our perception of Heaven.

BONUS: Our Top Pipeweeds of Middle-Earth (we're talking tobacco here, not that other stuff): Tolkien's and C. S. Lewis' Top Pipe Tobaccos.

Here is Bill's upcoming course on C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien. 60 students have already registered! Reserve your spot now for November 5!

Check out Bill's Way of Wonder podcast on YouTube, under the TOB Institute YouTube channel. There are well over a dozen episodes so far!

Do you want to bedeck yourself in your #1 galactic source for quality Catholic nerdery? Of course, you do! And now you can … Check out the C-Nerd T-Shirts and Merch!

Like the Catholic Nerds on Facebook.

Tweet us @NerdsCatholic

Email us at catholicnerdpodcast1@gmail.com

Also, check out Scott's e-course on the Virgin Mary at All Saints University!

Recent posts from Scott's blog:

• Why You Should Wear the Brown Scapular: In Loving Memory of Fr. Otis Young and Ruth Prats
• The Consecration to St. Joseph for Children and Families: 33-Day Family Prayer Routine to Build Holier Families by Fr. Donald Calloway and Scott L. Smith
• The One Question to Convert All Protestants: Where Did The Bible Come From? Did Catholics Add Books to The Bible OR Did Protestants Remove Books from The Bible? The Truth About The Apocrypha
• Pray the Rosary with Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich: Emmerich's Revelations for the Mysteries of the Rosary

Catholic Music Nerd-Out with Emma Fradd (now Kruse) and David Kruse!

Now presenting ... The best Catholic musicians you are about to discover and fall in love with!

Emma and her husband David Kruse are launching a new Catholic record label this December called Enemy Love Records. Check out all their amazing music and artists here www.EnemyLoveRecords.com. There's Emma, David Kruse, and Valere -- all great to check out!

And guess what?? The Catholic Nerds are starting a music label, too! Sort of. There is now a Catholic Nerds Music Playlist on our YouTube channel >> check it out!

Here are Emma and David’s picks, which you can check out at www.EnemyLoveRecords.com:

• Valere (R&B from New Zealand)
• Blue Lupin (Dream pop England)
• Les Guettuers (Regae from France)
• and of course ...
• David Kruse (indie folk rock from USA)
• Emma Fradd (indie pop from Australia)

Do you want to bedeck yourself in your #1 galactic source for quality Catholic nerdery? Of course, you do! And now you can … Check out the C-Nerd T-Shirts and Merch!

Like the Catholic Nerds on Facebook.

Tweet us @NerdsCatholic

Email us at catholicnerdpodcast1@gmail.com

Also, check out Scott's e-course on the Virgin Mary at All Saints University!

Recent posts from Scott's blog:

• The Consecration to St. Joseph for Children and Families: 33-Day Family Prayer Routine to Build Holier Families by Fr. Donald Calloway and Scott L. Smith
• The One Question to Convert All Protestants: Where Did The Bible Come From? Did Catholics Add Books to The Bible OR Did Protestants Remove Books from The Bible? The Truth About The Apocrypha
• Pray the Rosary with Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich: Emmerich's Revelations for the Mysteries of the Rosary

The Good, Bad, and the Idiocy -- another Good ol' fashioned Catholic Nerd-Out about the newest cinematic offering from the Tolkien Universe: Amazon's The Rings of Power. So many things to love. Alas, so many more things to grunt and grumble about. Here are our Top 5 Love & Top 5 Hate of the Rings of Power. Here are some of the many topics we dive into:

[SPOILER ALERT!!]

• When we figured out which character was Sauron
• The ret-conning catastrophe of the Silmarils and mithril, "The Song of the Roots of Hithaeglir," based on Amazon not having copyright to any of The Silmarillion
• The weird Rube-Goldberg machine creation of Mount Doom and Mordor and how pyroclastic flow works or doesn't work ...
• Howard Shore returns! sort of ... the God of War composer, Bear McCreary
• What's next? Charlie Vickers' accidentally lays out the entire plotline of the next 4 ROP seasons in a Vanity Fair interview, plus Pharazon and the rise of Sauron/Satan worship in Numenor (how will they make this anti-Christian?)
• The screenwriters, J. D. Payne and Patrick McKay, and their unfortunate "mystery-box" J. J. Abrams style of writing
• The non-Catholic paganism/animism mutation of the Tolkien mythos
• "One does not merely ..." try to mimic Tolkien's writing; stupid lines abound

Do you want to bedeck yourself in your #1 galactic source for quality Catholic nerdery? Of course, you do! And now you can … Check out the C-Nerd T-Shirts and Merch!

Like the Catholic Nerds on Facebook.

Tweet us @NerdsCatholic

Email us at catholicnerdpodcast1@gmail.com

Also, check out Scott's e-course on the Virgin Mary at All Saints University!

Recent posts from Scott's blog:

• The Consecration to St. Joseph for Children and Families: 33-Day Family Prayer Routine to Build Holier Families by Fr. Donald Calloway and Scott L. Smith
• The One Question to Convert All Protestants: Where Did The Bible Come From? Did Catholics Add Books to The Bible OR Did Protestants Remove Books from The Bible? The Truth About The Apocrypha
• Pray the Rosary with Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich: Emmerich's Revelations for the Mysteries of the Rosary

Good ol' fashioned Halloween Catholic Nerd-Out with Emma Fradd (now Kruse) about Catholic Horror Novels ... and just in time for Halloween!! Though awesome in her own right, Emma Fradd is the sister of Matt Fradd, the Catholic speaker known for his podcast Pints with Aquinas.

First off! Emma and her husband David Kruse are launching a new Catholic record label this December called Enemy Love Records. Check out all their amazing music and artists here www.EnemyLoveRecords.com. There's Emma, David Kruse, and Valere -- all great to check out!

Here are the links we promised in the show:

• Sibling Horror (YouTube link) - Here is the horror story podcast written and produced by Emma and Matt
• Knifepoint Horror - This is Soren Narnia's horror podcast, Soren is a frequent collaborator with Emma and Matt and and narrator of Sibling Horror
• True Ghost Stories & Hauntings: Real Catholic Exorcisms - Scott's book and audiobook (with spooky narrator)
• The Seventh Word - the first and only pro-life horror novel
• The Catholic Zombie apocalypse! Scott's ongoing series the Cajun Zombie Chronicles
• Manly Wade Wellman, (non-Catholic) author of Appalachian horror/fantasy yarns with the recurring character Silver John, including The Old Gods Waken and volumes Worse Things Waiting and Lonely Vigils
• Canticle for Liebowitz by Walter Miller - the classic Catholic Sci-Fi novel
• Consecration to St. Joseph for Children and Families - Scott's new book with Fr. Donald Calloway PLUS new consecration calendar

Do you want to bedeck yourself in your #1 galactic source for quality Catholic nerdery? Of course, you do! And now you can … Check out the C-Nerd T-Shirts and Merch!

Like the Catholic Nerds on Facebook.

Tweet us @NerdsCatholic

Email us at catholicnerdpodcast1@gmail.com

Also, check out Scott's e-course on the Virgin Mary at All Saints University!

Recent posts from Scott's blog: Pray the Rosary with Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich: Emmerich's Revelations for the Mysteries of the Rosary