HeightsCast: Forming Men Fully Alive

The crisis of meaning among young people gets a lot of press; but a quieter crisis of calling afflicts every generation today. Dr. Arthur Brooks says the causes are the same: not knowing what our life is really and ultimately for.

In his talk at The Heights Forum Convivium 2025, Dr. Brooks shares the facts about calling—where neuroscience, psychology, and theology all agree, and how he (finally) found his. He goes on to say that helping young people to discover the true Christian purpose of life and then one's personal calling is the missionary work of teachers.

00:04:12 Teaching: a missionary field 00:06:15 Crisis of meaning among the young 00:07:35 Crisis of calling among more than the young 00:14:23 Sanctifying ordinary work 00:18:42 The marshmallow experiment: not all it seems 00:24:40 High achievers with no calling 00:27:55 Three tests for goal setting 00:36:12 Four profiles for career trajectory 00:44:31 Success addiction: when love feels conditional 00:48:33 Arrival fallacy: when the goal doesn't satisfy 00:51:34 Posture of submission to find your calling

Arthur Brooks: The Science of Happiness, Work & Life, personal website

The Meaning of Your Life: Finding Purpose in an Age of Emptiness by Arthur Brooks, pre-order for March 2026

"How to Follow the Right Star" by Arthur Brooks, The Atlantic

Choosing a College—Or Not featuring Alvaro de Vicente

Rethinking College: Why go? How? When? featuring Arthur Brooks

The Art of Teaching Boys Conference at The Heights School (May 6-8, 2026)

Kevin Twomey is a husband, father, and a principal consultant at Table Group, founded by Patrick Lencioni, which specializes in helping executive teams build a healthy operational work culture. Lencioni's book, The Three Big Questions, brings that same expertise to bear on the modern frantic family: helping parents find their family identity, create intentional priorities, and live with more order and purpose.

4:01 Typical family operations

9:09 Frantic families in a frantic world

14:36 What makes your family unique?

21:57 Parent leadership

26:02 What is your family's top priority right now?

32:30 "Priority" shouldn't be plural

36:52 Long-standing objectives

38:46 Temporary rally cries

39:49 How do you deploy these answers intentionally?

45:22 Staying on track

The Three Big Questions for a Frantic Family: A Leadership Fable by Patrick Lencioni

The Frantic Family Model, family worksheet PDF

Family Culture featuring Alvaro de Vicente

How to Foster a Family Culture in Your Home by Alvaro de Vicente

The Art of Teaching Boys Conference at The Heights School (May 6-8, 2026)

The first images of a "protector" that flash through our minds might be the warrior, the superhero, the movie star physically holding back evil from invading the world…. Our lower school head, Colin Gleason, casts a different vision: the benevolent king, the merciful brother, the knight at vigil in the sanctuary.

Yes, our role as fathers is to protect—most often through a steady presence that communicates security to our children. When we do our job well, they can live with confidence. In his talk from the Fatherhood Conference last fall, Colin identified five battlegrounds for establishing this kind of security, most of which are in our own homes.

The Father as a Guide to the World featuring Michael Moynihan

The Father as Presence featuring Andrew Reed

The Art of Teaching Boys Conference at The Heights School (May 6-8, 2026)

To prepare for Homer, Virgil, Beowulf, the Eddas, and Dante—The Heights begins with Tolkien.

In a talk from 2016, former middle school core teacher and current upper school classics teacher Tom Cox defends the place of J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings in the epic tradition. He then explains why Middle Earth is so uniquely suited to the middle school, using Samwise the Stouthearted as our guide to the heart of a middle school boy.

2:46 Rethinking "the middle"

4:01 How LotR prepares boys for upper school

7:57 How LotR meets boys in middle school

12:47 Contrasted with other epics

14:41 Samwise as a middle school model

24:47 Tolkien's lessons for teachers and parents

26:07 Samwise the Stouthearted: earning his epic epithet

31:18 "Bear one another's burdens, fulfill the law of Christ"

The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien

The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien

The Iliad by Homer, prose translation by A. S. Kline

Plutarch Podcast by Tom Cox

Becoming Greece, textbook by Bill Dardis and Tom Cox

Becoming Rome, textbook by Bill Dardis and Tom Cox

The Forum Faculty Podcast hosted by Tom Cox

The Hope of Hobbits and the Despair of Denethor by Tom Cox

The Art of Teaching Boys Conference at The Heights School (January 7-9, 2026 / May 6-8, 2026)

From utero and into infancy, babies recognize their mother as being essentially one with them. So, being placed in their father's arms is in fact their first introduction to the "other," the outside world. The father will continue this crucial role as mediator and representative to the outside world throughout a boy's childhood.

With decades of experience and dozens of personal anecdotes, Upper School Head Michael Moynihan addressed the 2025 Fatherhood Conference to share how a father's parenting outlook now will shape his son's vocational and professional readiness to enter the outside world as an adult.

00:05:47 Mr. Moynihan's background 00:08:17 Fathers represent the outside world 00:12:21 Model God's loving fatherhood 00:17:02 Awaken the child's own agency 00:24:52 Partner with your wife to build this home culture

The Talk and Beyond: Raising Children in a Confused Culture by Michael Moynihan

Decisive Parenting: Forming Authentic Freedom in Your Children by Michael Moynihan

The Father and His Family: A Guidebook for Aspiring, New, and Experienced Fathers by Michael Moynihan

You're the Man for the Job: The Vocation of Fatherhood featuring Alvaro de Vicente

Our mission is to assist parents in the intellectual, moral, physical, and spiritual formation of their sons…

At The Heights, we repeat these words often, including a paraphrase at the beginning of every HeightsCast episode. But what constitutes intellectual formation? What does educating the intellect look like? Co-founder of the Hillbilly Thomists and Rector Magnificus at the Pontifical University of St. Thomas in Rome, Fr. Thomas Joseph White, joins us for a deep-dive into the rich Catholic understanding of intellectus, habitus, ratio, and what it means to "form" these God-given faculties.

1:35 Intellectus: to read into reality

7:41 Modern challenges to intellectus

13:35 Habitus: a stable disposition towards excellence

17:59 Modern challenges to habitus

21:22 Ratio vs. intellectus

27:07 Intuitive "sight" as a function of intellect

32:27 Developing clear "sight" in the young

34:35 Forming the heart alongside intellect

38:47 Whether the heart and intellect fully integrate

44:01 Beauty reveals the life of the mind to itself

The Hillbilly Thomists, co-founded by Fr. Thomas Joseph White

Contemplation and the Cross: A Catholic Introduction to the Spiritual Life by Fr. Thomas Joseph White

Wisdom in the Face of Modernity by Fr. Thomas Joseph White

Full catalog of books by Fr. Thomas Joseph White

The Regensburg Address by Pope Benedict XVI

Beauty for Truth's Sake: On the Re-enchantment of Education by Stratford Caldecott

Only the Lover Sings: Art and Contemplation by Josef Pieper

Why Beauty Matters: The Postmodern Pressure on Our Interior Life featuring Dr. Jason Baxter

Teaching Sovereign Knowers, essay series by Michael Moynihan

"Fact or Opinion?": Roots of Relativism in an Ethical Dilemma by Michael Moynihan

The Art of Teaching Boys Conference at The Heights School (May 6-8, 2026)

"Whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it" (Matt. 16:25).

This week we're joined by Fr. Carter Griffin, rector of the St. John Paul II Seminary in the Archdiocese of Washington, and Alvaro de Vicente, headmaster of The Heights School, to examine "discernment." It's become a Catholic buzzword, applied (or sometimes, perhaps, misapplied) to a number of life situations. Here, Fr. Carter and Alvaro discuss the methods and limits of vocational discernment—and the moral courage of commitment.

3:45 Christian discernment

6:09 Misuses of the word "discernment"

9:39 Whether we can wrongly discern vocation

14:46 Choice paralysis

20:25 Submit to the process

25:48 Dating and marriage

29:55 Mentors and spiritual directors

33:21 Principles for discerning well

39:38 "Throw your life away"?!

46:17 The need for prayer

52:36 Crisis of vocations or crisis of faith?

59:59 Church choice and church-hopping

"The Catholic Church Has a Manpower Problem", 22 September 2025, WSJ

2026 Men's Discernment Retreat for the Archdiocese of Washington

2026 Men's Discernment Retreat for the Diocese of Arlington

Forming Families, Forming Saints by Fr. Carter Griffin

Forming Fathers: Seminary Wisdom for Every Priest by Fr. Carter Griffin

Cross-Examined: Catholic Responses to the World's Questions by Fr. Carter Griffin

Why Celibacy? Reclaiming the Fatherhood of the Priest by Fr. Carter Griffin

You're the Man for the Job: The Vocation of Fatherhood featuring Alvaro de Vicente

Fostering Vocations in a Digital Age featuring Fr. Carter Griffin

The Art of Teaching Boys Conference at The Heights School (May 6-8, 2026)

Please, thank you, after you… Do manners matter? Are they artifice or virtue?

In this rebroadcast from 2019, lower school head Colin Gleason shares how manners can be the building blocks to a richer moral life—the habituation of virtue. He then offers practical advice for families and schools to help even young boys strengthen their "moral muscle" through manners that matter.

1:34 Why start in the lower school

3:12 Manners: artifice or virtue?

5:34 Orienting them towards the needs of others

10:06 Manners that matter

13:31 Social manners for small children

17:57 Intergenerational social experiences

21:30 Coaching in advance

27:23 Our example

Manners: The Art of Happiness by Robert Greving

Manners Make (More Than) the Man, review of A Gentleman in Moscow by Robert Greving

Mustard Seed Communities, donations for Jamaica hurricane relief

The Art of Teaching Boys Conference at The Heights School (January 7-9, 2026 / May 6-8, 2026)

In our school communities, we talk a great deal about moral and intellectual formation. But physical development, too, has an essential place in the whole-person, long-term vision of what our sons and students can become.

Heights Athletic Director Dan Lively reminds us that the goals of athletic training don't begin and end with high school sports. In fact, lifelong functional fitness is in service to every vocation. It ensures that we and our sons are capable of having a positive impact—on the world and in our families—for as many years as we're on this earth.

3:22 A long-term vision for your son's physical development

10:41 The goal: robust longevity

14:34 Health: more than avoiding disease

21:05 Mark Baker on functional fitness

24:14 Fitness increases one's potential for self-gift

25:58 Role of the school

31:51 Role of the family

40:09 Parents can play too

45:39 The thrill of middle school gains

47:32 Embrace your inner gym bro

52:01 The reluctant athlete

GuruAnaerobic, Mark Baker eBooks

Athlete or Academic: What's the Real Priority in Schools? on the Forum Faculty Podcast

Movement as Foundation of Fitness featuring Dan Lively

Character Formation in Elite Athletics featuring college coach Brad Soderberg

Mustard Seed Communities, donations for Jamaica hurricane relief

The Art of Teaching Boys Conference at The Heights School (January 7-9, 2026 / May 6-8, 2026)

One philosopher of our time claims that "today, the experience of beauty is impossible."

Dr. Jason Baxter, director of the Center for Beauty and Culture at Benedictine College, begs to differ. Dr. Baxter joins us on HeightsCast to unpack his latest book, Why Literature Still Matters, which looks at why such a claim might feel true in our digital age. Then, he talks us through why and how we should reclaim our experiences of beauty for the health of our soul.

00:03:34 The experience of beauty 00:08:44 Byung-Chul Han: the possibility of beauty today 00:15:41 Marc Auge: still living in the Enlightenment experiment 00:20:46 The soul is not a machine 00:24:57 Our task as parents, educators 00:35:05 Likes and emojis: the simplification of our interior life 00:49:23 A near-death experience in Sardinia 00:56:24 Beauty and mental health 00:57:40 Franny and Zooey: interiority matters 01:03:41 Recommended reading

Why Literature Still Matters by Jason Baxter

Help! Where do I go from here? Part I: Poetry by Jason Baxter

Beauty Matters, Substack for Jason Baxter

jasonmbaxter.com featuring articles and lectures

Center for Beauty and Culture at Benedictine College

Saving Beauty by Byung-Chul Han

Non-Places: An Introduction to Supermodernity by Marc Auge

The Wanderer above the Sea of Fog by Caspar David Friedrich

A Letter to Our Daughter by Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan

"A Prayer for My Daughter" by W. B. Yeats

"Burnt Norton" from Four Quartets by T. S. Eliot

Franny and Zooey by J. D. Salinger

"A Hill" by Anthony Hecht

"Advice to a Prophet" by Richard Wilbur

The Loss of the Creature by Walker Percy

Middlemarch by George Eliot

Far from the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy

Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro

Breathing Narnian Air: Loving Modernity as a Medievalist featuring Dr. Jason Baxter

Receiving Beauty: A Liberal Arts Education featuring Dr. George Harne

Order and Surprise: On Beauty and the Western Tradition featuring Dr. Lionel Yaceczko

Mustard Seed Communities

The Art of Teaching Boys Conference at The Heights School (January 7-9, 2026 / May 6-8, 2026)