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

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)

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
  
  

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

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

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
  
  

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

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

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

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