The Barn Philosopher

In this episode of The Barn Philosopher, the wives are back in the barn, and a broken microwave has us questioning modern civilization. Rita and Shelby are considering whether they actually need to replace their microwave or if they can get along just fine without one. How hard can it be to live without a microwave? Apparently, hard enough to fill an entire podcast episode!

What starts as a simple household question turns into a long, winding discussion about convenience, habits, the things we depend on, and whether we've become a little too attached to modern appliances. Ridge and Joan join in, and before long we're exploring a lot more than reheating leftovers. Is a microwave an essential piece of equipment, or just another thing we've convinced ourselves we can't live without?

Give it a listen and decide whether we're making a reasonable lifestyle choice or slowly losing our minds over a kitchen appliance.

If you enjoy the conversation, rate, follow, and share The Barn Philosopher with someone who can't imagine life without their microwave. Send us your thoughts at [email protected]. Bonus points if you have a strong opinion about reheating pizza.

In this episode of The Barn Philosopher, Rita and Joan join Shelby and Ridge for a conversation about family, faith, and the little people who turn your life upside down. Ridge and Joan are getting ready to welcome their eighth baby, which seems like as good a reason as any to talk about having children, natural family planning, and what it means to trust God's plan for your family.

How do we balance our own plans with what we believe God has planned for us? Where does natural family planning fit into that picture? And how much of family life can you really plan for when kids have a way of making their own plans? We dig into the beliefs, questions, and experiences behind these decisions, with four people bringing their own perspectives to the conversation.

Whether you're raising a big family, figuring out what family might look like for you, or just curious how faith shapes these deeply personal decisions, pull up a chair and join us in the barn.

If this conversation gives you something to think about, rate, follow, and share The Barn Philosopher with someone who enjoys a thoughtful discussion about faith and family. We'd love to hear your thoughts at [email protected].

In this episode of The Barn Philosopher, Shelby, Ridge, Rita, and Joan get together for what starts as a simple question and quickly turns into an investigation. Ridge reveals that Shelby once messaged him to say he’s uncomfortable talking to Ridge in public. What's wrong with a little public display of friendship (PDF). Naturally, the gang needs to know why.

Is it something Ridge says? Something Shelby does? Are they embarrassed by each other, or is there a much more ridiculous explanation hiding in the details? With the wives joining in, nobody is safe from speculation, accusations, or a little good-natured ribbing.

Sometimes the best way to understand a friendship is to let everyone else explain what they think is wrong with it. And sometimes, it’s best not to give your friends and wives that opportunity.

If you enjoyed the conversation, rate, follow, and share The Barn Philosopher with someone who makes you uncomfortable in public. Send your thoughts, theories, or questionable friendship advice to [email protected].

In this episode of The Barn Philosopher, Ridge and Shelby talk about the joys of getting old—or at least all the weird stuff that starts happening to your body along the way.

Ridge has an upcoming eye surgery, not because he got injured doing something exciting, but simply because his eyes are wearing out. Shelby has his own collection of unexplained aches, pains, creaks, and pops. Apparently, you don't have to do anything wrong anymore to hurt yourself. Sometimes you just wake up.

We talk about the strange realities of aging, how life gets more comfortable as we get older, and why that comfort can make it easier to let ourselves go. Fortunately, we've both found that making time to work out has paid off, helping us feel better and reminding us that taking care of ourselves becomes even more important as the years add up.

We're not trying to turn the barn into a fitness podcast. We're just two guys discovering that maintenance matters—not only for old trucks, but for the machinery we're living in, too.

Rate the show, follow The Barn Philosopher, and share this episode with someone whose knees make more noise than their old truck. Have thoughts, stories, or advice for two guys trying to keep the wheels on? Email us at [email protected].

In this episode of The Barn Philosopher, Rita and Shelby take our marital disagreements to Marriage Court, with ChatGPT serving up the cases and putting us on the spot.

From thermostat battles to Shelby's chronic lateness, we tackle the everyday disagreements that come with sharing a life together. Who's right? Who's wrong? And who is just making up rules to get their way?

We also mix in a few travel wishes, because apparently even our dream vacations are fair game for the courtroom.

It's a little debate, a little friendly arguing, and a chance to find out whether being married means you've learned to understand each other—or just gotten better at defending your own position.

The verdicts are questionable, the evidence is highly personal, and we're not entirely convinced the judge is impartial.

Think you can do better than the court? Rate the show, follow The Barn Philosopher, and share this episode with a couple who could use a ruling of their own. Got a case you'd like us to put on trial? Send it to [email protected].

In this episode of The Barn Philosopher, Ridge brings a phrase he's been chewing on: “Hate the sin, love the sinner.”

It's a phrase that sounds simple enough, but something about it bothers Ridge. What does it actually mean? At what point do we confront the sin instead of simply loving the sinner? Can we genuinely care about someone while avoiding the very thing we believe is hurting them? And is refusing to address wrongdoing an act of compassion, or are we just making ourselves more comfortable?

We dig into the tension between loving people, disagreeing with their choices, and deciding when—or whether—we should speak up.

Shelby, meanwhile, has developed a much less intellectually demanding approach: dismiss both the sin and the sinner and move on with his life. It's probably not the answer Ridge was looking for, but it does save Shelby a lot of mental energy.

It's a conversation about faith, judgment, compassion, and the uncomfortable space between accepting people and challenging them. We may not solve the problem, but at least Ridge has something new to think about—and Shelby can go back to not thinking about it.

Rate the show, follow The Barn Philosopher, and share this episode with someone who enjoys a good conversation—even when there's no easy answer. Have thoughts of your own? Send them to [email protected].

In this episode of The Barn Philosopher, I sit down with Rita to talk about where we were and what we were doing on September 11, 2001.

Shelby was working in construction, going about his normal day and catching bits of the news on a customer's television. Later, at the lumberyard, he got another update as the reality of what was happening continued to unfold. Rita was new to Ohio at the time and was considering returning to Guam. Then the planes were grounded, plans changed, and life took a different direction.

Looking back, we agree that 9/11 was a terrible tragedy that brought Americans together in a way few events ever have. For a time, it seemed like our differences mattered less than what we shared. Today, we can't help but wonder how a country that felt so united could become so divided.

And there's a personal twist: if it weren't for 9/11 and the events that followed, there's a good chance Rita and Shelby might never have met.

It's a conversation about a day that changed the world, the paths our lives took afterward, and how history can shape our lives in ways we never expect.

If this episode brings back memories or gets you thinking, rate the show, follow The Barn Philosopher, and share it with someone who remembers where they were that day. We'd love to hear your story, too, at [email protected].

In this episode of The Barn Philosopher, Shelby sends Ridge a cryptic message containing three things that seemingly have absolutely nothing to do with each other: abortion, miscarriage, and three liters of soda.

Somehow, Ridge manages to turn Shelby's half-formed thoughts into an actual conversation—and, in the process, occasionally helps Shelby understand what Shelby was trying to say in the first place.

We get into the difficult subject of abortion and miscarriage, the question of whether men should have a say in the conversation, and the uncomfortable reality that sometimes the things we know are good for us come with a much higher cost than the things that aren't.

Having children costs money. Eating healthy costs money. Meanwhile, three liters of soda can be cheap and easy. We use that contrast to talk about the way our culture prices convenience, responsibility, health, and some of life's biggest decisions.

This is not a conversation everyone will agree with, and that's okay. It's The Barn Philosopher. We talk about the things people sometimes don't want to talk about—and apparently Shelby doesn't always know what Shelby is talking about until Ridge explains it back to him.

Not an episode for everyone. But if you disagree, you know where to find us. Keep the hate mail coming.

In this episode of The Barn Philosopher, Rita and I are nearing the end of our trip through Germany, sitting under the trees at a lively biergarten in Freiburg im Breisgau.

It's one of our last recordings from the trip, and we spend some time taking in everything we've experienced—from cuckoo clock towns and waterfalls to the strange and wonderful experience of spending days in places where we don't speak the language and somehow manage to get through the day anyway.

We talk about the bakeries that seem to be everywhere, our ongoing search for a simple, watered-down American-style coffee, and all the little things that make traveling somewhere completely different from home so much fun.

This trip has given us a lot of great memories, and sitting there in Freiburg, we were pretty happy with how the whole adventure turned out.

If you've enjoyed traveling through Germany with us, give the show a rating, follow The Barn Philosopher, and share this episode with someone you'd happily get lost in another country with. And if you've got something to say, we'd love to hear from you at [email protected]. No translation app required.

In this episode of The Barn Philosopher, Ridge and I ask a couple of questions that aren't really about us at all.

If someone found a time capsule from your life 100 or 200 years from now, what would you want them to know about you? Not just your job, your accomplishments, or the things that ended up on paper—but the things that actually mattered to you.

Because eventually, everyone who knew us personally will be gone. What remains may be photographs, documents, newspaper articles, and now the endless amount of information stored on the internet. Future generations may know the facts about our lives and whatever accolades we managed to collect, but they won't know the stories unless somebody leaves them behind.

Then we lighten things up with a bucket-list question: What's one thing you absolutely want to do before you die?

Shelby's current answer—at least for the last two days—is to travel to every continent. Ridge wants to own a house in another country, possibly Japan or South Korea. He's not entirely sure why. It's just really far away.

The bigger question is one you can answer for yourself: What would you want the future to know about you, and what's one thing you still want to experience while you're here?

Rate the show, follow The Barn Philosopher, and share this episode with someone who has a story worth remembering.