There's something life-giving in uttering the phrase, "I guess I haven't learned that yet." Seth and Tsh talk with their friend Shauna Niequist about how she's learned to exhale and relearn how her life could be. Through moving to a new city, leaving known familiarity into uncharted territory, and questioning just about everything, Shauna found some much-needed freedom in the sacramentality of a learner's posture.

• Shauna's new book, I Guess I Haven't Learned That Yet


• Shauna on Instagram


• Seth: Newsletter | Website


• Tsh: Newsletter | Website


• Pick up a round of drinks & help keep the show going


• Come to Italy with us


• Our recommended reads


• The Book of Delights, by Ross Gay


• Walking on Water, by Madeleine L'Engle


• Ask Me: 100 Essential Poems of William Stafford

It's about halfway through Seth's challenge to stay off social media for the first six months of 2022. How have the first three months been? Will anything change for the next three months? He and Tsh talk some more about big-picture social media: does it work as a public square? When is censorship called for, and when does it violate free speech? And are the positives ultimately worth all the negatives?

• Seth: Newsletter | Website


• Tsh: Newsletter | Website


• Pick up a round of drinks & help keep the show going


• Come to Italy with us


• Our recommended reads


• How big tech is strangling your freedom on Honestly


• Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism, by Amanda Montell


• Around the World in 80 Days on PBS

When life is busy — like Seth's right now, or when life is slower — like Tsh's, who just started a short teaching break — it's a good time to remember good things. In this episode, they chat about three things each that are currently adding more beauty to their lives: a thing they're listening to, reading, and watching.

• Seth: Newsletter | Website


• Tsh: Newsletter | Website


• Pick up a round of drinks & help keep the show going


• Come to Italy with us!


• Wendell Berry's New Collected Poems


• The Woman at the Wall of St. Michael's, Seth’s poem for Ukraine


• The Abolition of Man​, by C.S. Lewis


• Half Moon Run + newsletter


• Mountain Man


• Bari Weiss’ episode on Honestly, Things Worth Fighting For


• The Last Kingdom on Netflix


• All Creatures Great and Small on PBS

We’ve all heard of the seven deadly sins, but what good does it do to think about them in our modern, well-intentioned lives? Maybe more to the point — why does contemplating about them bring us hope? It’s because of their corresponding virtues. Seth and Tsh talk about what this looks like in their own lives.

As a reference, here are the seven pairs of vices and virtues:

• Pride: A desire for excellence in excess of right reason
  
  • Humility: A rightly-ordered estimation of excellence
  
  
  
  


• Gluttony: A disordered desire for good things
  
  • Temperance: A desire to keep good things in their rightful place
  
  
  
  


• Lust: A disordered desire for pleasure
  
  • Chastity: A rightly-ordered desire for pleasure
  
  
  
  


• Envy: Sorrow for another’s good
  
  • Love: To will the good of the other
  
  
  
  


• Greed: A desire for more than is needed
  
  • Generosity/charity: A desire for enough for all
  
  
  
  


• Anger: A desire for vengeance contrary to reason
  
  • Meekness: Power under control
  
  
  
  


• Sloth: Sorrow for spiritual good; the absence of care
  
  • Diligence: Taking care to do what we value most
  
  
  
  

• Seth: Newsletter | Website


• Tsh: Newsletter | Website


• Pick up a round of drinks & help keep the show going


• Come to Italy with us!


• Bitter & Sweet, Tsh’s book for Lent


• The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane, by Lisa See


• Putin Country: A Journey Into the Real Russia, Anne Garrel

When big global events happen — like Russia invading Ukraine — what can we possibly do in our small, ordinary lives to make any difference? Seth and Tsh chat about how they’ve been talking about the news with their kids, how they’ve been processing it for themselves, and what we might learn from the past to forge ahead soberly toward the future.

• Seth: Newsletter | Website


• Tsh: Newsletter | Website


• Pick up a round of drinks & help keep the show going


• Come to Italy with us!


• Bitter & Sweet, Tsh’s new book


• The Bitter & Sweet playlist


• The Weight of Glory, by C.S. Lewis


• World War II in Color on Netflix


• The War by Ken Burns, on PBS


• On the Shortness of Life, by Seneca

Seth is off doing lawyer-y things this week, so Tsh talks to friend Joy Clarkson about, essentially, Wendell Berry’s beloved quip, “Be joyful though you have considered all the facts.” Why is it not only a good idea to pursue happiness — it’s necessary? And perhaps counter-cultural to our doomscroll-obsessed modern ways? Joy and Tsh talk about where real happiness is found, what it means to unironically enjoy what we love, and why doing so even makes us better neighbors.

• Seth: Newsletter | Website


• Tsh: Newsletter | Website


• Pick up a round of drinks & help keep the show going


• Come to Italy with us!


• Joy Clarkson and her new book, Aggressively Happy


• Joy on Twitter and Instagram


• The Artist’s Way, by Julia Cameron


• Bitter & Sweet, Tsh’s new book for Lent

As friends do, in this episode Seth and Tsh come to table to talk about whatever. Like the nerds they are, they end up talking about Romantic poetry, the end of the world, and more. Pull up a chair and join in!

• Seth: Newsletter | Website


• Tsh: Newsletter | Website


• Pick up a round of drinks & help keep the show going


• Come to Italy with us!


• Bitter & Sweet, Tsh’s book for Lent


• Station Eleven, by Emily St. John Mandel


• The Road, by Cormac McCarthy


• Principles for Dealing With the Changing World Order, by Ray Dalio


• “To Sleep,” by John Keats


• The Art of Lent, by Sr. Wendy Beckett


• Exploring Alternatives on YouTube

Seth is off social media for the first half of 2022, and Tsh is limiting most of her family’s resources to her 100-mile radius. How’s it going? What are we learning? We chat about these things, plus whether we think these practices might be a net-positive for you, too.

• Seth: Newsletter | Website


• Tsh: Newsletter | Website


• Pick up a round of drinks & help keep the show going


• Come to Italy with us!


• Bitter & Sweet, Tsh’s new book


• Station Eleven, by Emily St. John Mandel


• The Family Garden Plan, by Melissa K. Norris

Liz Gilbert once said that if she didn’t write, she’d become a farm dog and chew up the couch. Why do we partake in creative pursuits if we’re not going to profit financially from it? Lots of reasons, actually. Tsh and Seth chat with their friends Maile and Shawn Smucker about what they’ve been learning about why they have an insatiable need to create — and why every one of us needs to as well.

• Seth: Newsletter | Website


• Tsh: Newsletter | Website


• Pick up a round of drinks & help keep the show going


• Come to Italy with us!


• Seth’s latest thoughts on why he writes


• The Gap


• The Nine-Month Novel, led by Maile & Shawn Smucker


• Video of a Novel, Shawn’s new Substack


• Journal of a Novel, by John Steinbeck


• The Gospel in Gerard Manley Hopkins, by Margaret Ellsberg


• The Moviegoer, by Walker Percy


• Nobody Reads Poetry

We have SO MANY choices these days — on what to watch, what to listen to, what to read. We know well the feeling of opening a streaming service and indefinitely scrolling instead of clicking ‘play’ because of the inability to make a choice. So how do we choose? How do we all decide what deserves our attention and what we should just scroll past? After all, even with seemingly infinite choices, we still have a finite amount of time and focus. Seth & Tsh chat about how to decide what deserves a spot on our bookshelves, on our Family Movie Night agendas, and ultimately, in our personal and familial cultures.

• Seth: Newsletter | Website


• Tsh: Newsletter | Website


• Pick up a round of drinks & help keep the show going


• Come to Italy with us!


• Oatly 2021 Super Bowl commercial


• Keep or Toss? from Joel Miller


• Soul-Crushing, Family-Friendly Inspirational Trash from Joshua Gibbs


• New West Knifeworks


• Garden Maker, by Christie Purifoy