No Soft Boys: Raising Strong Christian Men for the Coming Storm
A cold run on the range has a way of telling the truth, and we start there: the Dickens Drill, weak ammo, gear quirks, and what “honest reps” look like when you don’t get to warm up first. But that quickly turns into the bigger theme we can’t ignore: raising boys who can do hard things on command, without excuses, and without needing constant entertainment to stay stable. If you care about fatherhood, masculinity, resilience, and practical virtue, this one is for you.
We get personal about broken homes and missing father figures, because those early gaps don’t stay in childhood. We talk about what actually fills the hole: real men to emulate, strong families to learn from, and the kind of books that show courage, duty, and self-control. We also get frank about guardrails, because modern “kid content” and even nostalgic movies can sneak in stuff you don’t want shaping your children’s imaginations. Catholic parenting shows up here as a lived culture, not a vibe or an argument online.
Then we go hands-on with the stuff that forms boys in real life: chores that make them sweat, learning tools, doing repairs together, bodyweight training, cardio, and discipline that fits a child who isn’t motivated by taking away toys. We also connect physical formation to spiritual formation through fasting and abstinence, explaining how to ramp it up wisely so kids learn penance without crashing. We close with community questions like matchmaking and parish demographics, plus a teaser for our next conversation on Sir John Glubb’s “The Fate of Empires” and what decline looks like up close.
Subscribe, share this with a dad who needs it, and leave a review so more families can find the show. What “hard thing” are you asking your kids to do this week?