What Dying Places Teach Us: A.M. Hickman on Rural America, Self-Employment, and Why He Stays

What Dying Places Teach Us: A.M. Hickman on Rural America, Self-Employment, and Why He Stays

If you like this episode, you’ll also enjoy Buc-ee’s Hates Your Hometown w/ Javier Velazquez [https://open.substack.com/pub/saintkolbestudiospodcast/p/buc-ees-hates-your-hometown-w-javier?r=57oohy&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web] A.M. Hickman [https://substack.com/profile/26207602-am-hickman] is the writer behind Hickman’s Hinterlands, a Substack with tens of thousands of subscribers where he publishes long-form essays—some running 13,000 words with 90-minute voice-overs—about the places mainstream America ignores. In this conversation, Joe and A.M. explore what it actually costs to live in the hinterlands (his house cost $33,000), how the birth of his daughter rewrote the calculus on staying put, and what a book about anarchist revolution taught him about knowing when to leave. Main Ideas: * The hinterlands aren’t just rural—they’re any place that’s out of sight, out of step with the dominant culture, and invisible to the people making decisions. You’ll find them in the Bronx just as easily as central Kansas. What they share is a burning ember of something the mainstream lost, kept alive by people who simply refused to adapt. * Living where nobody else wants to live is a legitimate financial strategy. A.M.’s house cost $33,000 with no mortgage, and his monthly expenses are so low that digital nomads in Panama City spend more than he does. The catch is the social cost—no school, a parish that will close within fifteen years, no other kids for his daughter to grow up with. * Having a child reframes every question about where to live. When it was just A.M. and his wife, the calculus was simple: cheap, wild, interesting. Now, with a daughter, the honest answer is that staying in a dying village may no longer be defensible—and he walks through exactly what it would take to leave with a clear conscience. * A.M. spent years as a political anarchist and student of revolution, and the theory he walked away from gave him one lasting insight: you can’t push a stopped train. The “arrows effect,” drawn from George Katsiaficas, holds that effective change has to jump on a current that’s already moving. A.M. applies this framework to community revitalization, to his own decision about upstate New York, and to the harder question of when persistence becomes delusion. There’s a genuine return to tradition happening, but it’s splitting in two. One group is going deeper—reading more, asking harder questions, returning to the Church. The other is going further in the opposite direction: gambling debt, Mike’s Hard Lemonade, no questions asked. The bifurcation is real, and her argues it has more to do with how mechanized culture rewards indifference than with individual moral failure. Resources: * Hickman’s Hinterlands [https://shagbark.substack.com/] * “Stumbling Toward the Cosmopolitan Christ” by A.M. Hickman [https://shagbark.substack.com/p/stumbling-toward-the-cosmopolitan] * “How to Live on $432 a Month in America” by A.M. Hickman [https://substack.com/@shagbark/p-163958511] * Buc-ee’s Hates Your Hometown w/ Javier Velazquez [https://open.substack.com/pub/saintkolbestudiospodcast/p/buc-ees-hates-your-hometown-w-javier?r=57oohy&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web] * The Subversion of Politics [https://www.eroseffect.com/subversion] by George Katsiaficas [https://www.eroseffect.com/subversion] Chapters: * 00:00 Why A.M. Hickman Won’t Paywall His Work (Even the 13,000-Word Ones) * 10:05 What the Hinterlands Actually Are * 13:03 The Burning Ember of Old America * 28:39 How the Automobile Killed Rural Life * 32:05 The $33,000 House: Living Where Nobody Else Will * 41:30 How a Baby Changes the Question of Where to Live * 47:12 When Is It Leaving Time? * 48:08 The Arrows Effect: You Can’t Push a Stopped Train * 53:28 Is the Return to Tradition Real or Just Aesthetic? * 55:26 The Bifurcation: Great Books vs. Gambling Debt * 01:00:34 The Melting Pot, Ethnic Rootlessness, and the Church * 01:06:12 We Have It Better Than Kings Produced by Saint Kolbe Studios [https://saintkolbestudios.com/] This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit saintkolbestudiospodcast.substack.com [https://saintkolbestudiospodcast.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

Buc-ee's hates your hometown w/ Javier Velazquez

If you like this conversation, you’ll love this episode of The Sword&Spade Podcast [https://swordandspade.transistor.fm/episodes/something-worth-worshiping-ross-arlen-tieken-on-paganism-magic-and-conversion] featuring Ross Arlen Tieken (El Antiguo Substack [https://substack.com/@elantiguo?utm_source=global-search]) ___________ Javier Velazquez [https://substack.com/profile/97366437-javier-velazquez] is a Catholic writer and the author of Exiled Heart [https://exiledheart.substack.com/], a Substack exploring what he calls “deep America”—the mythic, historical, and spiritual currents running beneath the surface of ordinary American life. In this conversation, Joe and Javier cover Southern aristocracy, the metaphysics of Bass Pro Shops, the difference between true and false localism, and why the future of small towns may rest with ordinary people willing to tell their story. Main Ideas: * What “deep America” actually means—and how the right lens can transform a Bass Pro Shop into a window onto the American soul * The case for Southern aristocracy and noblesse oblige: why rooted, land-based wealth is good for local communities * The difference between true and false localism—and why walkable streets alone can’t save a small town without a coherent story about who it is and where it came from * Why the leftists build better coffee shops: an honest look at aesthetics, anthropology, and what it reveals about our nature as persons * Four theories on the future of small towns by 2046—and why young families moving out of necessity might be the most likely catalyst for a cultural renaissance Chapters: * 00:00: Introduction * 02:12: The South as a genuine homeland—mythos, culture, and a sense of place * 06:46: Noblesse oblige and the obligation of rooted, local wealth * 10:10: How Javier got into writing and found Substack * 14:46: Defining “deep America” and the metaphysics of Bass Pro Shops * 22:33: Small towns, false localism, and the failure of blank-slate urbanism * 26:44: Why true localism requires storytelling, not just sidewalks * 29:15: Why the left builds better coffee shops—and what that reveals * 36:29: What Publix coming to your small town actually signals * 48:58: Remote life, the techno-rural renaissance, and the appeal of the country * 53:36: Four theories on where small towns will be by 2046 * 57:38: Human-scale community and why small towns are better for your soul Resources Mentioned: * Exiled Heart [https://exiledheart.substack.com/] — Javier Velazquez’s Substack on deep America, place, and Catholic culture * “The Metaphysics of Bass Pro Shops” [https://exiledheart.substack.com/p/the-metaphysics-of-bass-pro-shop] — the Exiled Heart essay Joe and Javier discuss * “What Happens to the Small Towns?” [https://theindustrialrevolt.substack.com/p/what-happens-to-the-small-towns] — Joe’s four theories on small towns by 2046 Produced by Saint Kolbe Studios [https://saintkolbestudios.com/] This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit saintkolbestudiospodcast.substack.com [https://saintkolbestudiospodcast.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

Is Your City Making You More Virtuous?

Felix Landry is a city planner at Texas A&M University Extension, where he does data analysis and financial mapping for municipalities across Texas—work he spent a decade doing on staff at cities in Texas and Colorado before moving into a public service role through the state university system. In this conversation, he and Joe work through a question most Christians have never thought to ask: does the way your city is designed make it harder to practice virtue? They trace the connections between urban scale, car culture, virtue, and what Christians actually owe the cities they inhabit. Main Ideas: * The built environment is a moral environment. How streets are scaled, how neighborhoods are designed, and how people move through a city directly shapes whether they can act on their virtuous impulses toward one another—or whether they’re physically prevented from doing so. * The dominant American city design—built around the speed and scale of the vehicle—dehumanizes the people in it. You stop seeing drivers as people and start seeing them as obstacles. Road rage and keyboard warrior behavior run on the same mechanism. * The question of whether to stay in or leave broken institutions—cities, public schools, struggling communities—is a moral question. * Most planning failures come from ideological silver bullets: eliminate the car, ban single-family zoning, build a $300M master plan. Good cities don’t emerge from one big fix. They emerge from getting human-scale incentive structures right across many smaller decisions. Chapters: * 00:00: Introduction * 06:17: Felix Landry’s Career in City Planning * 08:49: What Is Rural Absolutism? * 14:29: Cities as Volume Knobs for Human Nature * 24:44: School Choice and the Least of These * 36:21: When the Built Environment Blocks Virtue * 46:38: Scale, Cars, and the Disembodiment Problem * 53:49: Urban Noise and Why We Want to Leave * 01:01:58: Why Silver Bullets Don’t Fix Cities * 01:30:19: Reading List and Closing Thoughts Resources Mentioned: * Sidewalks in the Kingdom: New Urbanism and the Christian Faith [https://www.christianbook.com/sidewalks-kingdom-urbanism-and-christian-faith/eric-jacobsen/9781587430572/pd/30575] by Eric O. Jacobsen * The Space Between: A Christian Engagement with the Built Environment [https://www.christianbook.com/space-between-christian-engagement-built-environment/eric-jacobsen/9780801039089/pd/039080] by Eric O. Jacobsen * Till We Have Built Jerusalem: Architecture, Urbanism, and the Sacred [https://www.amazon.com/Till-Have-Built-Jerusalem-Architecture/dp/193223697X] by Philip Bess * Crabgrass Catholicism: How Suburbanization Transformed Faith and Politics in Postwar America [https://crabgrasscatholicism.com/] by Fr. Stephen M. Koeth, C.S.C. * On Kingship, to the King of Cyprus [https://www.amazon.com/Kingship-King-Cyprus-Thomas-Aquinas/dp/0888442513] by St. Thomas Aquinas Produced by Saint Kolbe Studios [https://saintkolbestudios.com/] This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit saintkolbestudiospodcast.substack.com [https://saintkolbestudiospodcast.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

Cross-Post: Memento Mori for Business Owners: Joe Coleman on Eternal Stakes and Christian Entrepreneurship

This is a cross-posting from Lisa Theus’ Kingdom Builders series where I talk about building Saint Kolbe Studios out of a series of failed pivots—with a pregnant wife, a ticking financial clock, and a confusing amount of peace. In this conversation with Christian SEO consultant Lisa Theus, I talk about that last seven years of my career that led me to this business. I also bring up death and hell a bunch. It surprised me as well, but I promise it’s topical. Hope you enjoy! Main Ideas: * How I arrived at Saint Kolbe Studios * Why Saint Kolbe Studios rebranded from Catholic-specific to broadly faith-based, and what drove that decision * The primary good of a business: why I’m more concerned about providing dignified work than strict gospel impact * The trap of consequentialist thinking for Christian business owners—and why bending the rules for a good outcome is still bending the rules * Why the most clarifying thing a business owner can remember is that they will die and be held accountable Chapters: * 00:00: Introduction * 01:47: Joe’s Path to Saint Kolbe Studios * 07:45: Seeing God at Work in the Business * 10:39: The Primary Good—Dignified Work for the Team * 13:33: The Cost of Christian Business Ethics * 16:04: Eternal Accountability for Business Owners * 21:02: Final Advice and Call to Action Resources Mentioned: * Saint Kolbe Studios [https://saintkolbestudios.com/] * Quill & Wave [https://quillandwave.com/] * Joe Coleman on LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/joecolemanpodcasts/] * Read my interview with Lisa here [https://www.lisatheus.com/christian-entreprenuership/memento-mori] * Lisa Theus Christian SEO Services [https://www.lisatheus.com/] This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit saintkolbestudiospodcast.substack.com [https://saintkolbestudiospodcast.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

The Simple Sales System Behind Decided Excellence Catholic Media

Isaac Summers and Adam Husing of Decided Excellence Catholic Media join Joe Coleman to discuss how they built a scalable, mission-driven print media company that mails hyper-local Catholic magazines directly to homes and parish databases. They break down the business model—two magazine tracks, a 1099 commission structure, and a daily three-step sales system—that has allowed independent publishers across the country to build flexible, family-sustaining income. Main Ideas: * Decided Excellence runs on a simple daily system—prospect, cold call for one hour, run three meetings—and Adam argues that consistent execution of those three things is sufficient to build a profitable magazine business * The 1099 structure is a deliberate choice: publishers earn up to 90% commission above the cost of production, with no micromanagement, making it a genuine path to financial and schedule autonomy for entrepreneurs willing to do the hard work * Cold calling works at scale—roughly one in three decision-makers agrees to a meeting, and the overall close rate lands around 20%—numbers that apply beyond magazine sales to any business built on outbound prospecting * The most successful publishers aren’t defined by prior industry experience but by whether they want long-term income over a quick base salary and whether they can work without being managed * Adam traces the business back to Lighthouse Catholic Media and Best Version Media, illustrating how a proven niche-market magazine model was adapted for a Catholic audience—a transferable lesson in spotting and reapplying successful frameworks Chapters: * 00:00: Introduction * 02:12: What Is Decided Excellence Catholic Media? * 05:59: Inside the Magazine: Format and Content * 09:00: Why Mail Directly to Homes? * 12:12: How Recipients Are Identified * 14:41: Why Print Over Digital? * 16:26: Two Models: Parish vs. Community Magazines * 19:11: How Publishers Make Money * 22:35: The Future of Print Media * 30:19: Apostolic Obligation and Entrepreneurial Freedom * 40:15: Who Succeeds as a Publisher? * 46:26: Daily Habits of Top Performers Resources Mentioned: * Decided Excellence Catholic Media [https://decidedexcellence.com] * Parish Magazine Info [https://decidedexcellence.com/parish] * Join the DECM Team [https://decidedexcellence.com/join-our-team/] * The Soul of the Apostolate [https://tanbooks.com/products/books/the-soul-of-the-apostolate/] by Dom Jean-Baptiste Chautard [https://tanbooks.com/products/books/the-soul-of-the-apostolate/] Produced by Saint Kolbe Studios [https://saintkolbestudios.com/] This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit saintkolbestudiospodcast.substack.com [https://saintkolbestudiospodcast.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]