And Sons

What are you hoping for? What are you thinking about on a daily basis that brings expectation and anticipation? We all know the story of the Christian hope, it's on t-shirts and tattoos and hallmark cards. How often are we framing our days based on it though, and how often is the world's version taking over?

In this episode, we flip the script. Aaron McHugh, of Work Life Play, interviews the And Sons team (Sam and Blaine) to talk about creative work. How does And Sons keep moving dreams down the field and projects out the door? In brief, years of trial and error. But there’s more to it than that. From the personal challenges of work to basic creative habits, this is an episode on how to ship. Here’ the copy from Work Life Play:

Today’s interview is with Blaine and Sam Eldredge with And Son’s Magazine. We talk about their eight-year dream of creating a print magazine, the power of transformation v.s. entertainment, masculinity as a lens by which we can view everything else, in defense of millennials, the joy of words, vulnerability and going first, the temptation to quit, brotherhood and hearing God’s voice.

Love Work Life Play? Find Aaron McHugh over at aaronmchugh.com, and subscribe to the Work Life Play podcast wherever you get your podcasts.

If the data can be trusted, we’ll all find ourselves job searching, more than once, in our 20s (and 30s too). In this episode, we brought in Luke from a long-term undercover assignment job-searching to get a tactical download. Like, what job-searching sites are statistically reliable? How do you beat candidate-filtering algorithms? What’s a decent application/interview ratio? It’s all pretty darn helpful. Not jobless? Doesn’t matter. We dig in to keeping the heart alive in off seasons, the meaning of work, and how work relates to a vocation over time.

Oh, by the way, And Sons is a print magazine. Haven’t subscribed? Get on over to andsonsmagazine.com/print and join the tribe.

Two things are given in human experience. Birth and death. Our culture doesn’t spend much time thinking about either one. And neither, to be honest, do we. Not until we have to. Which is a problem. If there were two events framing every human life you’d think we’d spend the necessary time to understand them. In this episode, we roped in midwife/writer Kim Osterholzer to map out the territory. This isn’t health class. There’s no test at the end. In this episode, we ask more about the nature and meaning of birth than the way its done, the things people should know about it, and why it matters. It’s a revelatory talk. As men, it’s vital that we make ourselves students of the feminine soul. Birth is, after all, God’s plan for populating eternity with his image. It’s a space that reveals the power of the feminine soul to create the future, in relationship, and it turns out men have a role. Wild stuff.

Here at And Sons there’s one question we get more than any other: How do I build conversational intimacy with God? Meaning normal, practical, chatty relationship. Hearing God is the basis for the rest of the Christian life. So of course we roped in John Eldredge to riff on steps to hearing His voice. From new categories for listening (playfulness, kindness) to basic relational skills (stress-free conversation, seeking confirmation) to stories from the field, this is one we’ll return to ourselves.

Books and seminars and conferences and counselors and lifetimes are spent on this subject, and rightly so. But the truth is, knowing that we need to care for our souls, to seek stillness, and to be active about our healing is one thing, actually doing something about it is quite another. Sam and Blaine offer a few simple practices that they use to care for their souls, intentionally, because the alternative is a lifetime of neglect.

We roped in And Sons strategist Jon Dale to riff on a growing concern. It’s education. Problem is, when most folks think of education, they think of mining textbooks for answers other people already know, taking multiple choice tests and reading dusty books, all because they have to. In short, we think of the system designed to make industrial workers for a world that doesn’t want industrial workers any more. In this episode, we discuss the alternative: how to love problem solving, how to fail, and how to love of the unknown. If you grew up (like we did) in a public education system that, however well-intentioned, remains rife with problems, it’s not too late to start learning.

When it comes to our daily rhythms, we tend to drift into paths with less resistance and difficulty than others. Life is hard enough as it is, so why wouldn't we choose to ease off where we can? The problem is that that posture can bleed into every aspect of our lives, until we avoid anything that seems too difficult or like too much work. Sam and Blaine share about places they are choosing difficult things for the sake of life, their families, and God.

Strategy is an abused word for a vital concept. In this episode, we sat down with our friend and longtime pro-strategist Anthony Ashley to get to the root of the discipline: what is strategy, what’s it made of, and how do we use strategy as a paradigm to structure our world. Listen for tools to assess immediate strengths and weaknesses, build good goals, and refine the unique approach the corresponds to the personality of any person or team. From the history of warfare to the formation of a dream, building companies to developing character, strategy’s the proven toolkit for it all.

We've got a few books stacked around the office that we like to flip through for inspiration, and Hank Shaw's "Buck, Buck, Moose" has had a spot on our desk for a while now. Shaw is a forager, angler, hunter, and chef, who combines all of his experience to pretty staggering effect. His journey out of political writing and into the ethics and better use of wild food would be worth an episode on its own, but throw in his knowledge of the culinary world and you've got something even more enticing. To read more by Shaw check out his blog: https://honest-food.net