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

 

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In Praise of Hobbies

Writers and friends Seth Haines & Tsh Oxenreider chat over drinks about living sacramentally—seeing God in all things. Pour yourself a glass and pull up a chair as they talk about the sacramental nature of work, art, community, stories, love, the hard stuff, & more. 

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Arts

Literature

Performing Arts

Design

Food

Fashion & Beauty

Visual Arts

Religion & Spirituality

Other

Spirituality

Christianity

Buddhism

Hinduism

Judaism

Islam

Books

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 

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Working With Our Hands

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 

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Making Things

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 

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Localism

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 

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Revisiting the 100-Mile Radius

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

In Praise of Hobbies

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