Pints With Aquinas - Here's what happened without the Internet for 30 days!

Episode Date: September 14, 2021

I’m back in the studio after an ENTIRE MONTH away from the internet, and I have loads to tell you. Tune in as I share some insights I picked up while I was off the grid, as well as answer your questions about:  - How I did (and did not) spend my time while I was away.  - Which technology I’m giving up for good now.  - How to let go of your smartphone and social media.  - And more!   Sign up for my free course on St. Augustine's "Confessions"!   SPONSORS Hallow: http://hallow.app/mattfradd STRIVE: https://www.strive21.com/ Ethos Logos: https://www.elinvestments.net/pints    GIVING Patreon or Directly: https://pintswithaquinas.com/support/  This show (and all the plans we have in store) wouldn't be possible without you. I can't thank those of you who support me enough. Seriously! Thanks for essentially being a co-producer co-producer of the show.   LINKS Merch: https://teespring.com/stores/matt-fradd FREE 21 Day Detox From Porn Course: https://www.strive21.com/   SOCIAL Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mattfradd Twitter: https://twitter.com/mattfradd Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mattfradd Gab: https://gab.com/mattfradd Rumble: https://rumble.com/c/pintswithaquinas   MY BOOKS Get my NEW book "How To Be Happy: Saint Thomas' Secret To A Good Life," out now! Does God Exist: https://www.amazon.com/Does-God-Exist-Socratic-Dialogue-ebook/dp/B081ZGYJW3/ref=sr_1_9?dchild=1&keywords=fradd&qid=1586377974&sr=8-9 Marian Consecration With Aquinas: https://www.amazon.com/Marian-Consecration-Aquinas-Growing-Closer-ebook/dp/B083XRQMTF/ref=sr_1_4?dchild=1&keywords=fradd&qid=1586379026&sr=8-4 The Porn Myth: https://www.ignatius.com/The-Porn-Myth-P1985.aspx   CONTACT Book me to speak: https://www.mattfradd.com/speakerrequestform

do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do Welcome to everybody in the live stream. Great to have you. I have had a month off of the internet. Actually, yeah, 30, 31, 32 days. And I'm back for the first time, feeling lots of different things. So I thought I would come on here since I kind of shared that this is what would be happening and sort of share the journey with you and take some questions from y'all and, yeah, just kind of talk about what it was like. I think this is something that's, you know, becoming more and more obvious. You know, people are getting addicted to kind of technology and they're seeing its negative effects. The very fact that iPhone has a way for you to monitor how much, you know, screen time you had that week. Like why would your iPhone be interested in having you spend less time on it? Well, it seems only because this is kind of entering into the kind of public consciousness. So this is something I think

we can all learn from. I've said it before. I'm very blessed that I can take a month off the internet. I had to work my butt off in July. But then, of course, my assistant and I had a marketing team who were publishing things. I had my sister actually was running my social media for the last two months. Thanks a lot, Emma. And yeah, so that's a blessing. So maybe you can, maybe you can't take a month off the internet, but I still think this will be helpful because you might be able to take a weekend off or a day off or something like that. And that'll be good. But it's really bloody good to be back i have to say that um it's a it's a mixture of i'm excited to hit the ground running and then also kind of like some uh some anxiety a little bit honestly just i turned this phone on today check this out uh i

gave this away to my friend joseph palmer hereville. I hate it so much, just having to hold it. I'm going to turn it off now. It arrived in my inbox. Not my inbox. Oh my gosh. It arrived in my mailbox. No, I'm not going to say it again. Just go away. And so this came, I just turned this on this morning and it exploded with a bazillion bings from people who probably didn't know I was taking the month off the internet. I gave my phone away. You saw the last live stream that I did, shut down my computer and that was it. And that day I was speaking at an apologetics conference here at the University of Franciscan University of Steubenville. I was speaking at a big apologetics conference, which is why, by the way, I was able to get Trent Horn and Mary Healy and Andrew Swofford all in on the same day to then drip them out over the course of the month. So yeah, that was really cool. I went to Franciscan to give a talk. And here's the first thing that happened to me, okay? I was walking up, well, I parked, and there's that lovely sort of entrance area at Franciscan. It's got these gorgeous flowers,

okay? Now Now it might sound kind of cheesy or stereotypical, but I saw these flowers and I thought they were absolutely gorgeous, right? They were just bright and beautiful. And I thought to myself, I should stand here and look at them. And then I thought, well, don't do that. That's kind of weird. It's, and I shouldn't think that. It's sad I think that, but I did think that. Maybe you'd think that too. If you've got people walking around, you want to take a close-up look at these flowers and the bees buzzing around them, and there was a few butterflies. But then I thought to myself, the only reason these flowers are here, the only reason they have been planted here,

not the only reason flowers exist, right? But the only reason they were planted here was so that you and I could enjoy them by looking and smelling them, like looking at them and smelling them. That's their only purpose as far as the people who planted them were concerned. So I thought, how strange that I should feel a bit weird about doing something with these flowers, which is the whole reason that they're in the first place. And so I did, I just kind of stopped and smelt them and looked at them and was just fascinated by their beauty and gave praise to God for them. And I have to say, there was this moment where I looked up feeling a bit weird and I looked around at everybody else looking at their screens. And I'm like, okay, so it's beginning. Here we go. So a few things that I did over the course, oh, by the way, before we go any further, my YouTube algorithm has taken a

massive kick to the butt because I haven't been on posting and we're super down in like our usual subscription numbers. So if you haven't subscribed to Pints with Aquinas, would you click subscribe and then that bell button and that way google will be forced to evangelize you through the amazing guests that i have planned for the future that would be awesome thank you so much give us a thumbs up all that stuff really helps um yeah so here's a few of the things that i did in in august first of all i bought a kind of cheap record player because i wasn't going to have my phone so i was borrowed some records from different friends of mine, bought some cheap ones. I read The Lord of the Rings, completed it in August, and it was magnificent.

I want to talk a bit about that. I even memorized poetry. My wife was shocked at how easily I could do it because I don't actually do that often, and I'm not terribly good at memorizing things. So my day would consist of waking up, making coffee, sitting in my chair, putting on a record and reading. And so I would read the Lord of the Rings or I'd read some work on Thomas Aquinas or apologetics. I would read poetry. And that was beautiful. we'd play volleyball a few friends of mine here rob pretzel thanks rob and others we just got to hang out together it was absolutely lovely um it was cool to be more interested in what people in my community thought of me than what y'all thought of me no offense or unless you're in my community because being on youtube you get a gazillion people telling you exactly what they think about

you and what you just said and how you got that slightly incorrect and why you shouldn't be so much like this, you know, and then also praises, right? Telling you how great you are and things like this. But it's kind of a bit unbalanced. I think it's a little unnatural. So to be kind of more concerned with the people in my area was really, really cool. I really loved that. I also got a dumb phone for the month and I think I'm gonna devote a whole episode to that because I have made the decision Wow I just made it as I said those words I've made the decision to only use a dumb phone and to get rid of this this smartphone here so

you know there's a bazillion contacts in here there's a bazillion contacts in here. There's a bazillion text messages that I've gotten over the course of this month. Yeah, I'm not going to continue with this. I can't. I just can't do it. It's so ridiculous and unnatural to walk around with a high-powered computer in your pocket. It just does awful things to your head. I'm convinced of it. So I'm getting rid of this.

It's going to be, wow, there you go. I didn't know I was going to do that. And I'm going to keep my dumb phone. And I'll probably devote a whole episode to the dumb phone I'm choosing because there's a bunch of different options out there. There's like a light phone. There's a wise phone. There's a gab phone. There's different phones for the modern age. So they're not like a flip phone. But I think I'm going to go with that. So I'll devote a whole other episode to that. Anyway. Yeah. Let me just, let me just share a couple of the things that I kind of wanted to share with you, especially from the Lord of the Rings. Let me say this. If you haven't read the Lord of the Rings, I want you to do this. I want you to take whatever book it is you're reading right now and set it on fire and flush the ashes

down the toilet. Then I want you to go and buy The Lord of the Rings and read that book. It is so beautiful. I cannot remember how many times I was brought to tears or just deeply, deeply inspired by Tolkien. Gosh, I love him. Here's a few things that struck me. First of all, there was this. Well, maybe not in order, but I've been told what's going on in the world right now. You know, people actually didn't know what was going on with Afghanistan and Biden until quite recently. People were shocked that I hadn't heard of it, but there you go. And then people were saying things about Pope Francis or some cardinal.

And I just thought to myself, what I'm reading in the Lord of the Rings is actually more factual than whatever Biden is doing and whatever Cupich or Pope Francis is doing. I don't mean that it's not important what they're doing. I just mean there's like the deep mythology is somehow more factual and accurate and true than whatever is happening in this passing world and it reminded me of a scene from the lord of the rings in which the ents who are the sort of tree people um were unconcerned for the most part of the affairs of middle earth because they have lived for so long and they will continue to live. Unless Saruman gets his way, of course. And there was just this like, yeah, they're not concerned about it. Like we're like a little story to them. And I kind of thought that that was an interesting analogy for how we should view what's going on in the world right now. Like we are part as Christians

of a much larger story. And so whatever Biden or Pope Francis or some cardinal or some Catholic YouTuber said today, yeah, there's some importance to it, but it has to be viewed through the lens of the story as a whole. Namely, Christ has conquered death and has won the victory. And our role is the same today as it was for Christians a thousand years ago, to grow in holiness, to evangelize our brethren, and to bring as many people aboard the bark of Peter as we can. Another thing that really struck me in the Lord of the Rings was when Tom Bombadil, who I never appreciated until this time around. I've read the Lord of the Rings before, but this time I got so much more out of it. I would also say, if you're going to read The Lord

of the Rings, make sure you read it along with the map in the back of the book. Like, actually consult that as you're reading through it. It's marvelous. But I love Tom Bombadil. And, you know, Tom is this sort of, I think his name means fatherless one. He's a very mysterious figure in Middle-earth. The ring has no impact on him. He has no desire for it. He doesn't go invisible when he wears it. He can see Frodo when Frodo's invisible. He's just completely uninterested in it, right? So he's this powerful figure. And what struck me was when he said of Farmer Maggot, I think I've got his name right, who was this, whatever, this salt of the earth guy who the hobbits had a few run-ins with.

They didn't consider him very special, but they were struck that Tom Bombadil spoke of Farmer Maggot with a reverence that surprised them, which led them to believe that he was far more integral to the story, as it were, to the way events were unfolding, than they had suspected. And I just think that is a great way to think of things. It's so easy to look past people, look past the barista,

look past the person at the checkout counter, to see them as unattractive or to see them as silly and not worthy of your conversation. Hopefully you would never think these things, but as you decide where to put your attention, I mean, you've got to be discriminating, right? But this just reminded me that we are all part of this grand story, and God is calling you to a specific mission which he needs you to fulfill. I celebrated my 15th wedding anniversary and my wife and I went away for a couple of overnights and I just was so struck by her. I looked at her and I thought of what Tom Bombadil said of Farmer Maggot. Just this idea that like, I don't know who I'm looking at here. This woman who I've now lived with in marriage for 15 years, who I've drunk coffee with in places I've forgotten completely about and may never remember again.

Here's this mystery, this mystery who I get angry with, who I'm sullen with at times, who I'm not great to all the time, who I repent towards, who I want to love better. This person who I think I've figured out, I really don't. It actually brought me to tears, man. A lot of crying happened this month. Here's the final thing I'll point out about the Lord of the Rings that really struck me. And that's that Gandalf and others are saying things like, not even the wise can see how this will all end. And of course, that's true. I don't want to spoil it for you. So if you haven't seen the movies, if you haven't read the book, maybe pause for the next 15 seconds. Here we go.

Yeah, when, you know, Frodo isn't the one who destroys the ring obviously it's gollum and we have no idea how things are going to work out in the end i mean so many people looked at the idea of sending the hobbits into mordor as this is a absolute fool's errand this is ridiculous right the ring should go to gondor we should wield wield it as we see fit for the good of Middle-earth. And things look so bleak so many times in the Lord of the Rings that you're like, this is hopeless. And I think you and I can fall into that despair when we look at the state of the church or our country,

no matter where we live. I think there's kind of division everywhere. But I think that's important to keep in mind, you know, that not even the wise can see how things end. And we have to continue to trust in the Lord even when it feels like hope might be lost. Because I do think that, and I've fallen prey to this as well, like just giving up on everything and just being like,

yeah, it's all screwed, like America's burning, whatever. There might be truth in that. But I also think being dismissive and hopeless is actually a kind of cowardly way out. thing burn, you're choosing not to invest any physical energy, maybe, in helping people, but even the energy that your heart ought to be giving is sort of muted. So I don't think that's a good thing to do, and I think that the Lord of the Rings kind of helped me understand that a bit more. So go read the Lord of the Rings. My goodness, it was beautiful um okay uh what else i mean there's so much to say but i i don't want to bore you so maybe we'll just take some questions here um if you want to put your question in the live stream feel free to do that and i will

take it if i see it um i also wanted to point out as these questions are coming in that we're still wanting to hire a full-time Catholic, Jamie. We have someone in mind that, I'll just be honest with you, is about to start, but I don't have the funds yet. So part of the reason for that is even when people give on Patreon, like I got a lot of people giving five bucks a month, ten bucks a month or something. I got a lot of people giving five bucks a month, 10 bucks a month or something. But then every time the month comes around, a lot of credit cards expire or people stop giving, which is totally fine.

So the more people who can give, a small amount would really help because I want to give and will give this person a good wage. I want him to be very happy. I want to be very happy. I need to rely on him. So I need to give him a full-time wage. But in order to afford that,. I want to be very happy. I need to rely on him. So I need to give him a full-time wage. But in order to afford that, I do need people to support us on Patreon. So if you want to go to patreon.com slash Matt Fradd, you can see all the gifts I give you in

return. Also, you can go at pintswithaquinas.com slash give and give directly if you don't want to give through Patreon. That would help a real ton. And thank you so much to all those who are doing that. I appreciate it. Oh man, beautiful. All right, let's see here. I'm going to go through some questions now. Emily says, did you also give up music? No, I didn't. I gave up my iPhone and I plan on giving it up forever now. up my iPhone and I plan on giving it up forever now, but I did have a record player and I would play music. It's weird when you think that music was intended to be listened to while sitting down. Even if you think of the old folk songs or the religious songs, you're supposed to be stationary either while you're singing them or listening to them.

The idea that it's like, I'm going to get in my car and do this or I'm going to run around and do a hundred different things. I'm not saying it's a bad thing. I'm just saying it was a strange experience to sit down and choose to listen to music as opposed to doing it on the go. All right, let's see excited for the show on dumb phones yes stay stay tuned for that i'll publish that maybe this week even colin carr good to see you mate he says what is the tech that you're most wary of now you're coming back to the internet i think my just my phone, to be more broad about it. So I'm going to keep my dumb phone. I'm going to decide how I'm going to shift, because there's a lot of inconveniences that come from giving up your smartphone. Like I'd go to Savannah for

business the other day, had my dumb phone, missed my flight and ended up in the airport for seven hours. And you know that old saying, it's great to have no wifi when you're in the airport for seven hours. It's not a true saying. All right, it's not a saying, but I just had to sit around doing nothing. And it wasn't pleasant. I think we expect the same immediate gratification from quitting our phone as we do from our phone. Do you understand what I mean? So you may have heard me say some things. You think, yeah, if I quit my iPhone, I'm just going to memorize poetry and read the Lord of the Rings and I'm going to feel fantastic. It's like, no, it's going to be really bloody difficult and it will continue to be difficult

in certain ways. It's weird. I had to catch a taxi in savannah because i don't have a phone to catch an uber right all of this is to say i think the phone is what i'm most wary of i'm going to give that up i think permanently and i think the question is what inconveniences are you willing to accept in order to live a more peaceful more balanced uh life because it's definitely inconveniences uh for sure like ones that annoy you but it's like okay what am i willing to give up you know so that that's what i'm most willing to give up uh most looking forward to give up i should say um let's see here uh a dose of theosis uh also known as derrick says are you anticipating the afterglow of the past month wearing off and how you will combat that no i'm not because i don't actually feel a glow now like i it's not like i'm feeling elated with things um i certainly felt a

certain amount of anxiety opening up my email and seeing a gazillion emails. Here's my fear. My fear is that I'll just get sucked back into the vortex despite my best intentions. So that's my fear. Glory to Jesus Christ. Jean says, so good to see you back again, Matt. Glad you're back. I don't know if this is Jean Charbonnet or not. If it is, good day. If it's not, g'day. What was your favorite thing about being away from the internet for a month? Days go slower. My brain isn't divided between giving attention to my kids and giving attention to social media. Between taking my wife on a date and wondering if

my YouTube video is doing well. Like my brain's not divided. Andrew. G'day, Andrew. What kind of music did you listen to? Beard is on point, by the way. Yeah, we'll see how long it lasts, but thank you. Yeah, I like jazz a lot.

So I got some old jazz records and Louis Armstrong. I got Bon Iver's first album for Emma forever ago. I was listening to that. I got, my sister sent me the best of the 1930s. I really like old, oldies kind of music. So I was listening to that. And I even got, this is going to sound weird, but there's, I like the Zelda soundtrack and there's a lo-fi Zelda track on YouTube. If you want to go listen to it, just go check it out. And they sell a record on Amazon. So I bought that. So there you go. Okay. Let's see here. What, says Anthony, do you have for people who are throwing their hands up in the air because they have fought many battles and know that they have lost?

Maybe an interior prayer. Life alone is better. Prayer of life. Oh, yeah. Forgive me. I don't fully understand the question, but I will say this. Last night, my wife and I watched Hillbilly Allergy on Netflix. I'm embarrassed that I still use Netflix.

I don't think it makes it better that it's my mother-in-law's account. But anyway, it is a gorgeous movie. It is a very intense movie. I was exhausted watching it. But that is a movie about not giving up hope even when you continue to fail. My God, it's glorious. And I would highly recommend checking it out um certainly some troubling and dare i say triggering scenes nothing sexual

but that's a great one you might want to check that out matt frat how is your family in australia i pray for the people there hard situation yeah i guess i just say it's nice to see australians finally beginning to rise up against tyrannical covid laws in my estimation um man oh that's cool okay uh voyager says yeah i stopped listening to music while i'm exercising and running cool So here's another thing that I noticed. Let me ask you this. I'm trying to think of how to put this. Would you ever eat McDonald's again?

And maybe you don't eat McDonald's, but maybe you sometimes go there. Or a fast food chain, you know. Not Chick-fil-A. That doesn't count. That's heavenly. you sometimes go there? Or a fast food chain, not Chick-fil-A, that doesn't count, that's heavenly. Would you eat a kind of low-grade fast food if you couldn't go through the drive-thru? If the drive-thru wasn't available, would you actually go into McDonald's and sit down, order, and eat it there? I think a lot of people, at least I would, say no. I just wouldn't do that. Okay, why? Well, it's the convenience you know i'm willing to eat bad food if it's convenient okay here's the analogy i didn't listen to podcasts but i did

allow myself to watch tv if you listen to the interview i had with dave rubin i was going to allow myself to watch movies tv and i never really did that because i don't love movies hillbilly elegy was beautiful, but I don't really watch TV. So it wasn't really a thing, but I had no desire to watch a Ben Shapiro episode say, or to, or to have my wife play it in the background so I could listen to it. Or I'm not saying that Ben Shapiro is low quality. I think he's doing a lot of great stuff. I really do actually. But my only point is, would you listen to the podcasts you currently listen to if you had to sit down to listen to them? I think most people would say, no. You might say, Pints of the Aquinas, you're great,

but I'm not going to sit down and listen to it. I'm going to listen to it while I'm in the car. I'm going to listen to it while I'm shopping. I'm going to listen to it while I do the dishes. I'm going to listen to it while I exercise. That's an interesting thing, I think. What podcasts would you and I be willing to listen to if we could only listen to them while sitting down? I think that says something about the quality of those podcasts we're listening to. I think what it says is we're willing to listen to podcasts just to distract us and to fill the void while we do other things. But we wouldn't be willing to sit down to listen to them. I think we should take it like a real,

we should really think about that. So I didn't listen to podcasts or watch them while I was away. And now that I'm not gonna have a smartphone, for those who just joined us, I've decided to give up my smartphone and keep my dumb phone. I'll do a whole episode of that,

maybe this week or next week. I'm not gonna listen to podcasts and I'm not going to miss them because all they were for me was background noise, which filled my head with their opinions, be they good or not, while I did other things. So that's something, too, I found very kind of interesting. Oh, man, so many questions this is cool oh this is beautiful look at this amy uh pitts buckner says can't wait to hear about the dumb

phone i have decided i can't in good shape conscience preach to my son about its downsides and continue with this good for you i just don't know how i can yeah okay that's a fair point so what she's saying here is i i don't know what i'm how can i live without having some kind of map system please watch my upcoming video on switching to dumb phones because i'm going to address these things because that like remember earlier i said what inconveniences are you willing to embrace that's not not one of them for me. Like I'm not willing to embrace the inconvenience of not having maps. It's just, that's the one, I'm just not willing to do that.

And I'm not really, if I had to, maybe I would be, but I'm not terribly excited about buying a GPS from Walmart and having to update the software every so often. So it doesn't get out of date, you know? So we'll definitely address this oh man let's see about um oh okay we have other questions here on uh okay what poem did i memorize uh it's called the grandeur of god uh by is it gerard manley hopkins who was a jesuit priest by Gerard Manley Hopkins, who was a Jesuit priest.

I may as well recite it, if that's okay. I'll see if I can remember it. It's so beautiful. The world is charged with the grandeur of God. It will flame out like shining from shook foil. It gathers to a greatness like Like the ooze of oil. Crushed. Why do men then now.

Not wreck his rod. Generations have trod. Have trod. Have trod. And all is seared with trade. Bleared. Smeared with toil. And wears man's smudgeudge and shares man's smell.

The soil is bare now, nor can foot feel being shod. And for all this, nature is never spent. There lives the dearest freshness, deep down things. And though the last lights off the black west went, oh, morning at brown brink eastward springs, because the Holy Ghost over the bent world broods with warm breast and with bright wings. I'm much more excited about having memorized that

than something Michael Scott said on The Office. Oh, God's grandeur. Somebody corrected me. Okay, thank you. Okay, thank you. All right, this has been fun. I only ever watch Pints with a Chronicle while sitting on the sofa and paying full attention. Good job.

Good job, John Williams. We're going to take some more questions here. I'm going to let them fill up. I want to let people know, especially if you're in the Ohio area, I'm going to be giving a talk this... Oh, what night is it? let people know, especially if you're in the Ohio area. I'm going to be giving a talk this Friday night at Steubenville. No, I don't think it's nighttime, actually. I think it's 3 p.m. at Steubenville. I'm going to be giving a talk on what Thomas Aquinas had to say about happiness, remedies for sorrow. Big thank you to everybody who's got my new book,

How to Be Happy, Thomas aquinas's secret to a good life it's available on amazon um and saint paul center who's the publisher it also mas road's a publisher but you can buy it through saint paul center mas road um it'll also be available on audible soon uh hopefully next month i or this month i recorded it and myself and i'm pretty proud of it it'll be releasing soon. I'll let you know when that happens. But if you have read the book, would you please give it a five star review or a one star review? I suppose I don't want to tell you to be false, but if you liked the book, please give us a five star review because yeah, it was, it was really cool to write

that. And then I tried to send 20 copies to my mum in Australia. And somehow I accidentally sent, I sent 80 copies to my mum. My mum's like, what the bloody hell am I going to do with 80 copies of your book? I went, I'm sorry. I thought it was 20 copies. I got 80 copies. She's like, do you want me to sell them? No, I don't want you to bloody sell them. Just give them away, you know?

So anyway, so she's giving them away there. So if you know my mom ask her for a copy of the new book uh glory to jesus christ uh jorge says what happens to your spanish videos okay so we are currently in the process of starting tequila con aquino everything is on track for that to be happening this is another reason you should support pints with aquinas because we are going to be paying somebody to run that who is a Spanish speaker. So it won't be awkward dubs of me.

But you should have more information about that this month. So I'm pretty excited about that. Glory to Jesus Christ. Let's see here. JW says, I'm thinking of adding a dumb phone to my cell service and keeping my smartphone in my car for the maps feature and impromptu necessary internet searches. Cool.

What's difficult about that is the lack of self-control that you might have, and you might just kind of go back to it. So again, please check out my dumb phone video this week or next week. I'll schedule it soon. And I'm going to talk all about this. Okay, let's see.

Claire says, Matt, I'm wanting to get rid of my smartphone, but I'm a stay-at-home mom without much Catholic community where I live. I feel like my smartphone, podcast, social media help me to feel less lonely. That's awesome. So, I mean, okay. So one thing you could do is if you have an iPhone, you can block the app store in settings and you can actually set a code that like have

your husband or have a friend set a code so that you can't unblock the app store without that code, right? And so once you've blocked the app store, you can then delete all the apps that you want to delete. And then you might just have podcasts on it or something like that. So that's an option. You might think about that. Dan Kinsley says, where's the talk Friday? You'd think I would know more, wouldn't you, about a talk that I'm giving? But I am just back on the internet. Let me just check if my assistant has put the details on my bloated inbox. 108 unread emails. That's not as bad as I was thinking.

Okay, let's see. Calendar. Maybe she's put it in here. Ready, set, 3. Okay, 3 p.m. Steubenville talk. Location. Oh, here we go. Gentile. What? Okay, is that it? Is it Gentile or did she misspell it? Gallery, Franciscan University. So there you go. That's when it is and where it is. Ryan, nice to see you.

Matt, glad to see you here again. Welcome back. I pray August was awesome. It was. Thank you so much. This fellow says, got my pints with Aquinas mug. Looks good

and is an appropriate drinking vessel. This is reason number 502 that you should become a patron because I will send you a Pints with Aquinas beer stein slash coffee mug, which is actually a pint size. And you can, that would be sweet. Oh, I got to show you this. Occasionally in my patrons post these cool things. And I want to show you this image that was sent to me from one of my patrons.

Oh, do I have it? Maybe I don't have it. Oh, yeah, I do. Here's the image here. I'm just waiting for it to load. Apparently, it's a billion megabytes. I don't know. All right, let me see if I can throw this up here.

I don't know who these fellows are, and I actually don't have their names, but how cool is that? Ah, yes, two blokes having some nausea beer. Very cool stuff, man. So that's lovely. All right, let's see. Oh, Gentile is correct. Okay, good. Javier says, I'm late. Better late than never, mate. Oh, look at this fellow. He says, hi, Matt. Now watching pints with a nice and warm cup of Irish coffee.

Please pray for Argentina I'm a priest here bless you father thank you for your priesthood thank you for your continual yes to our blessed Lord despite whatever problems you're facing around you and within you thank you someone's from Hungary nice to see you. And this is beautiful. Okay, let's see what else we have here. Derek Babb says,

Hi, Matt. So happy you're back. My fiance and I just began our CIA last week. Glory to our Lord Jesus Christ. Glory indeed, Derek. It's lovely to have you, mate. This fellow says, How is jujitsu going? If you're ever in Green Bay, Wisconsin, you are super welcome to come, blah, blah, blah, 100% Catholic owned.

Wow, that's awesome. Met my wife there. That's funny, given how close you have to be with each other in jujitsu. Yeah, so jujitsu for me was a passing thing. I did it like three times. I would have continued except that the classes were at five and 6 p.m., which is just not

a good time for me because I got to work and then I got to go drink dinner time. So I don't know if I'll go back. I enjoyed my time there, but I'm not sure if I'll continue. Let's see. this fellow lady says four hour drive for me to Steubenville but I'm off work all Friday

alright I don't want to tell you what to do you know but also I'll be signing books too after this

speech of lecture whatever it is at 3pm on Friday I'll have you stick around, chat with whoever wants to chat too.

It'd be nice to meet people who want to come. Matt says, Maximilian, can you do more of those debates? I love them. Yeah, we have a couple lined up. We have one on the Immaculate Conception coming up between a Catholic and an Orthodox. And I'm trying to schedule at least one a month.

So yeah. Sarah says, I love my smartphone. Awesome. Then you should keep it. If it's an ordinate love, I suppose I should add there. So today, says Emily, I'm trying this thing where I'm deleting my social media apps at the beginning of each month

until I have read two to three books you are beautiful what a lovely thing to do good on you yeah man yeah super chat is off i i don't know i just uh i should turn it back on so i can make money shouldn't i I? But Luke says, Matt, how do I avoid the indoctrination of the public school system? Oh God, I don't want to be a jerk and I don't want to tell you something that's going to sound pompous or that may strike you as me not understanding the needs you currently have. But I would say take your kids out of public school yesterday. That's difficult. Maybe there's a lot of things that you have to rearrange,

but I wouldn't put your kids in public school. Honestly, I wouldn't put my kids in 90% of Catholic schools, but that's just me um plato versus aristotle i first read aristotle when i was doing my undergrad in philosophy and loved him i love the nicomachean ethics really enjoyed physics. Yeah, physics. Plato, though, is someone you can pick up and read and understand immediately. And then, of course, on further reading, you'll understand that he's saying something much deeper than you first thought. But Aristotle can be very difficult at first. But if you're interested, there's a free e-book that I wrote. It's below in the description. It's the top link.

It's called You Can Understand Thomas Aquinas. And in it, we describe Thomistic metaphysical terminology, which very often is synonymous with Aristotelian metaphysical terminology. So go check that out. It's a free book. Just click the link, top one in the description. That might help you read Aristotle. I'm just going to have awkward silences like this while I read through your comments.

Is that okay? I mean that or I could just go, but I'm just kind of enjoying this. This is a nice sort of slow getting back to the internet. slow getting back to the internet. Sweet. We have big plans for this studio, I should point out, especially when we get Catholic Jamie here full time, which, again, I'm doing. I kind of wish that I would say to you,

only once we reach this goal will I do it. But I'm just so impatient that I've hired this person who we'll talk about more. And it's about to start. So please support us, patreon.com slash mattfrad or pintswithaquinas.com slash give. Whatever you can give would be bloody huge. And if you don't want to do that, and if you can't afford it, please don't feel bad.

I'll have people come up to me like, hi, I'm Pints of the Aquinas. I'm not a patron. It's so okay. I am a fan of podcasts and I don't support them, even though they beg me. So please don't feel bad. It's totally fine. Oh, this is not a beer. Yeah, somebody just asked what I'm drinking. This is liquid death, which is water. Things aren't that bad that I'm drinking at 10, 12 in the morning. Oh, Andrea, that's so kind of you to say. So glad you're back. Thank you very much. Shorsha says,

watching Matt while I have lunch. Love from Ireland. Bless you. Bless you, my friend. It's great to have you here. Jason Phillips would love to see a series of deep dives into theology, especially the foundational stuff. Had a couple of debates with friends over the justification of the papacy in the last while. Okay, awesome. Well, let me tell you who I'm going to have on the show this month. It's in my calendar. We have, let's see, Sister Natalia, the Byzantine nun who I've

had on the show before. She's younger than me. Beautiful. Gosh, she's beautiful. That'll be next week. I'm interviewing the week after. All these are in studio by the way that's the other thing it's really cool i'm flying people into steubenville every week and putting them up at hotels because i would rather sit down and have a beer and chat with somebody than have a skype interview so that's the other thing that your patron am i hitting the patron thing too hard no not even close that's the other thing your patron money goes to support me paying their flights me paying the hotels and things like that so So after Sister Natalia on the 14th, we have Shane Page, who was a Methodist pastor. And he had a massive congregation in either North or South Carolina. And I spoke to him on the phone while he was still a pastor, but he decided to become Catholic. So we're on the

phone and he's saying to me, he's like, listen, if the Eucharist is not truly the body, blood, soul, and divinity of Jesus Christ, I'm about to do the most stupidest thing I have ever done. Because he's got a family and he's not going to have health insurance. Well, he's quit. And I don't know if he has a job or anything right now, but he's going to be in the studio

and we're going to be discussing that. How amazing is that? The week after I have Suwon flying him in and we're going to discuss the papacy in depth. We just did a seven part video series on the papacy that he led for all my patrons. It's free if you're a patron. So go check that out. And oh, I'm going to be on the Babylon Bee this month. You guys fans of the Babylon Bee? I guess on the 28th, I'm doing the recording. I don't know if it's live or not. But that week, I'll also be interviewing Sam Guzman from the Catholic Gentleman. I got a ton of people lined up and I'm really excited about it. So yeah,

I hope that excites you too. Let's see here. let's see here. Super Top Homie says, how do you practice chastity when it actually becomes an active choice rather than circumstance? Well, I mean, chastity should always be an active choice. I mean, I'm married.

My wife has been sick for quite a while. I won't get into the details, but abstinence is required in marriage in certain circumstances. But of course, chastity is that virtue which enables us to love rightly, love patiently, you know. Abstinence is a negative word. It just means what you're not doing. Chastity, you might say, means what you are doing. And so whether you're not married or you're a priest or you are married, chastity is required. Like whether you're single, chastity is required.

So it's hard, man. Like it's bloody difficult. single chastity is required. So it's hard, man. Like it's bloody difficult. And I'm not sure if maybe in our zeal to promote chastity, certain people, including myself, may have, I think, have overstated just like, hey, the Lord will give you the grace. And it's super easy. I mean, of course, the Lord will give you the grace, but you just got to do it. And maybe we haven't been as honest about how bloody difficult it can be. I've got friends of mine who haven't come together in the marital embrace for months because either she's exhausted with children or he doesn't have a job or there's health issues. It's health issues. Like it's

tough work. And I think that doesn't mean we get rid of chastity, but it might mean we have to be more honest about it, you know, about how difficult it can be. And yet, nevertheless, look at Christ on the cross, you know, which again is one of those throwaway lines. So forgive me for doing that. but yeah. Let's see. Oh, cool. A lot of people are excited. They're going to be on the Babylon Bee.

Nice. You should invite back Peter Kreeft. I should. He is just a gem. I love him so much. I haven't actually read your comments about what you thought of that interview because I was offline.

So I haven't checked him, but I hope you liked it. What a beautiful man. I just love him so much. I love the Babylon Bee. Cool. Well, hopefully you'll enjoy my interview on it. Also, I was on Michael Knowles' show last month. He interviewed me in July because I said I was off in August. And then he posted the clip in August. So if you're interested, if you like that guy, Michael Knowles, there's a clip on his channel. You could watch that. We talk about pornography and Biden and things like that.

Let's see here. This fellow or this lady says, don't want to knock RCIA, but they don't go far enough. You should consider the TLM for traditional. I mean, I wouldn't necessarily agree with that sentiment, but I suppose those who are going can hopefully make that judgment for themselves. I've certainly had instances where I, this is an interesting story. Oh, wow. So I helped convert a guy who was a Playboy producer. And he was going to be brought into the church and he wanted me to be his sponsor. And that didn't end up happening for different reasons, but he was going through RCIA and it wasn't a good experience. So I, you know, and he didn't even realize it wasn't a good experience at the time because he wasn't as educated as maybe he would be.

So I see the point. I think that's, you know, you've got to be discerning. Although he was in San Francisco, so I'm not sure, you know, what that's, well. Luke Howard, Matt, talking with Dr. Taylor Marshall would be the ultimate crossover, much better than Infinity War. Yeah, maybe, I don't know. Have I ever been to a mass celebrated by the Institute of Christ the King? Yeah, aren't those the blokes in Chicago? Because I've been there and gee, that was lovely.

They also celebrate the Novus Ordo beautifully too. King. Yeah, aren't those the blokes in Chicago? Because I've been there, and gee, that was lovely. They also celebrate the Novus Ordo beautifully, too. Did you hear about Mass of the Ages, Matt? It came out a few weeks ago about the TLM. I actually think I'm in that, aren't I? Or maybe I'm not in it, but I know. I think he interviewed me for it, actually think I'm in that, aren't I? Or maybe I'm not in it, but I know, I think he interviewed me for it. But okay, cool. I didn't know it was out and I'm sure it's lovely. Gee, what a time to release it, huh? Oh, here's another thing that I've been doing. If, I don't know if you guys are interested in this or not. I've been, I've been doing intermittent fasting and I have no self-control. So if you're like oh gosh another one of these people that's not me i'm hopeless but i've i've actually been doing it i've actually been really

liking it i i basically like last night i went to 5 p.m the day before that like i'm trying to get to after 3 p.m every day so i basically wake up pound a bunch of espresso drink water all day um have a cigar or a pipe and then that's been really cool i've been that's another thing i've been doing this uh this time away matt what do you think is a bigger problem than the left's gender ideology on abortion well crikey uh i would have to spend time thinking about it, but I would say it's a pretty bloody big problem and ought to be resisted with tremendous vigor and creativity. How's that? Oh, I'm so glad that Sarahah says would you consider doing another show with rachel

killacky she's beautiful isn't she i'm so glad you enjoyed that yeah sure i'm open to having her on um intermittent fasting is amazing i do it almost every day can i be honest the reason i do it is because i'm i just i'm not exercising right now. I'm going for walks and stuff, but I'm not doing much. So that's kind of the reason. Maybe I'll do that. Can I just say too, I love living in Steubenville. This is an interesting podcast, isn't it? I'm just chatting with you about whatever I want to chat about. But I was in Savannah last week. By the way, it's really funny when you're an Australian and you don't know how to pronounce things properly. Because I'm like, should I be saying Savannah? Savannah feels American. But then I look at it, I'm like, I guess I'd say Savannah.

Anyway, so I was in Savannah. And Savannah is beautiful, right? It's a beautiful town by the ocean. Lovely little walking, walkable downtown, lots of history, great little jazz club that my friend and I went to. And while I was there, I thought, I can't wait to get back to Steubenville. Now, let me just put that into perspective, right? Steubenville is a town in Ohio that is very rundown. We had a $500,000 meth bust on the street, one street over from where my street is. It's not funny. I'm not laughing. You know, there's

definitely prostitutes occasionally. There's definitely potholes. There's definitely broken down buildings. I love it so much. I love it. So many beautiful people. We had someone come in to do some construction on our house the other day, right? And he's a big burly bloke doing construction. And he's like, oh, are you coming to Macbeth in the park, you know, Shakespeare in the park tonight? Because he was in it. I just love that my like maintenance guy is also acting in this voluntary Shakespeare in the park, you know? And so the whole Catholic community shows up and others show up and they did Macbeth and I've never watched Macbeth. I've never read Macbeth and I really enjoyed it. My kids went

like three times in a row. There's just so many beautiful people here. Also, there's a house on my street right now for $85,000 and it's five bedrooms. That's the other thing that's awesome about living in a rundown town. Kind of tempted to see if we can take out a loan and maybe rent it to some good Catholic family, but I just love living here. That's it. You can ask me how I feel in January when the snow is falling and it's freezing and all that, but I just love it. I mean, going to midday mass at the university with my kids

and seeing all the college students. They're just so beautiful. I just love it so much. Dan Kinsley, mate, I don't know if I've met you yet. I don't think I have, but I know you said you were moving to Steubenville. So I'll try to make it to Holy Mass today at 12. So if you're there, maybe come and say g'day. All right, let's see here.

Hi, Matt. Do you know that in Australia right now, heaps of people are being forced to get that jab in order to keep their jobs? Bishops have said nothing about this. I'm still thinking this through, all right? Can I share this with you? I think the lockdown measures in Australia are nuts, and I'm really glad to see Australians pushing back.

There is a monopoly on the news, it seems to me, in Australia in a way that there isn't here. You know, if memory serves, and I've been out of the country for, you know, many years now, you kind of have one narrative. It would be like living in America, but you only have MSNBC. And you don't have kind of competing voices and things like that. Like you don't have Fox News, you don't have Daily White, you know, you just got this one narrative. So in Australia, this is as I'm thinking it through, right? And I need to do more thinking on this, but it kind of feels like, yeah, like people are

just, it just feels a lot more peaceful because there's no loud opposing voices in the same way that there are here. But I just don't like it. I mean, I don't like how my, I've spoken to my family in Australia and they say things that I'm just like, why are you talking about the government like that? Like one person said to me,

and I won't say which family member, but they said, yeah, I mean, it's pretty intense, but like, you know, they're doing what's best for us. I'm like, dude, you say that about your parents. You don't say that about your government. So I don't know if I've just drunk the Kool-Aid, but I just think it's ridiculous that Australians are putting up with this. And I've been thrilled. I'm not sure how much I can say before I get banned, but I've been thrilled to see people, shall we just say, pushing back in Australia because it's nuts. As far as the jab, what do you guys think about this, right?

Because I'm not opposed to people getting vaccinated. I don't think it's immoral, even though I know many people do. I don't like the idea of people getting forced to do what they don't want to do because, well, because your body, your choice, right? I agree with that. Your body is your choice. Oh, the fetus, that's not your body, so shut up. But people maybe being forced to do this seems a bit ridiculous. Here's an argument, though, I've thought of.

I see the logic. A lot of companies had to shut down during COVID, and many went bankrupt and will never come back again. Others are unable to run a successful business into the future unless people get vaccinated, because if they're not vaccinated, then they're more likely to get sick or to be around somebody who's sick and then have to take 10 days off, and then you can't run a business like that. somebody who's sick and then have to mandatory, you know, take 10 days off and then you can't run a business like that. Like I see that argument, but I still think it's wrong to tell people what they can do with their bodies. In that sense, that's kind of where I'm at right now. Listen to me. I have not been on news for the last 30 days. So if there have been developments

and I don't know about them, please show me some mercy. But there you are. don't know about them please show me some mercy um but there you are i tell you what though i don't know about you but i kind of miss trump i i like i know trump was gross in different respects but so are you i i kind of wonder how how if we could have put up with the with the angry absurd tweeting and not have just what had in Afghanistan. I'm not a political commentator. Oh, shut up. But I kind of miss him. And I kind of think he's hilarious.

My friend and I were, this is several months back, we were at his cabin and we were looking for something to watch that was funny. And so we watched The Office and that got boring. We looked for something else. And then we just watched the best of Donald Trump. I like him. So I'm not saying he's moral or great or I agree with everything he says. I'm not saying he's not a phony in different respects. I'm just saying I prefer him to Joe bloody. Okay. Hey, I want to let you guys know too that I have a new channel called Sips

with Aquinas. So if you guys want to see the little clips we put out from all the interviews, you can't get them here anymore. You can only get them at Sips with Aquinas. So please go check that out and subscribe. What do I think about Christendom College? I think good things. Here we go. Here's all the Trump things. Oh, man.

All right, this is lovely. What else we got here? Hi, Matt. Do you think literature like Lord of the Rings, which can quite beautifully convey spiritual truth, is nonetheless a lesser form of expressing truth than reading the Bible? Of course. Yeah. I mean, the Bible is the word of God. The Lord of the Rings is not.

So it's not inspired in the same way that the Bible is. That said, I think the Lord of the Rings is inspired, and I think one can learn a great deal of spiritual truth from it. But you see, the other thing is, like, I think we can fall into this false dichotomy too, right? Where we're like, well, the Bible's the best thing to read, so why would I read anything else? thing to read so why would i read anything else it's like well because you know you're a human at a certain stage of maturity and other works can open you up to the deep truths that heretofore you have missed in holy scripture you know so um that that's what i would say That's what I would say. Let's see.

Andrew says, I listened to someone talking about the vaccine debate, and she was saying that the opinions on it seem to be based on what you're more afraid of. Yeah, I'm sorry. I'm just not going to wear a mask again because I'm not sick. And if I am sick, I'm going to stay inside. It's just what I'm doing. I'm also going to find priests who will never again deny me the sacraments. You should find a priest like that. So there you go. Have Matt Walsh on? Yeah, I should. I really like him.

Did you see his talk to the school board? He did that. Go check it out. Check out Matt Walsh's school board. I thought it was excellent. Man, there are so many of you right now. Oh my gosh. Kelly, I'm so sorry. My husband might lose his job for 27 years

because of the mandatory jab. We are in a very hard place. I'm so sorry, Kelly. What do I think about the University of Dallas? I've heard very good things about the Catholic presence at the University of Dallas? I've heard very good things about the Catholic presence at the University of Dallas. When or will sibling horror be making a return? So if you're not familiar, my sister and I write short supernatural suspense stories called Sibling Horror. We pay an American to read them.

It's a podcast. You can also buy the book on Amazon. About 1% of my audience is interested in it, but I am writing another story right now. And maybe it'll be in time for Halloween. We'll see. Man, there's a lot of people who are upset about Trump and stuff. And Biden. By the way, thank you, people who live in different parts of the world, to allow me to talk about Trump and Biden. I know that doesn't really interest you, perhaps. Ah, what dumb phone do you have?

I will be making that announcement in an upcoming live stream where I'm going to talk all about dumb phones, hopefully this week or next week. So hopefully you can join me for that. Yep, pierce is one of the people we're looking for so check that out um andrew did you develop any new hobbies when you were away any that you were able to delve into more reading consistently smoking daily going to Holy Mass almost every day. Yeah, man. Okay, let's see. Alex, I'm about to move across the country for my first full-time job. Do you have any advice?

Okay, so can I just like wax on this, maybe eloquently, maybe not? Okay, I wish that I did this. This is what Matt Fradd wishes he did when it comes to where we moved. And I didn't have the option at the time because we were, you know, not, well, we didn't have different opportunities were available at the time, but I wish I had done this. I wish I had have found a solid Catholic community that would make raising Catholic children easier. Life is hard enough already. I wish I had have moved, honestly, I wish I had a move to Steubenville right after we got married. Now, I couldn't have seen how things would have evolved. Podcasts weren't a thing when I got married. But I wish that I had have moved to a solid Catholic community. And that would be my advice as much as it's worth to anybody out there.

If you're thinking of starting a Catholic family, like if you're Catholic and you want a Catholic family, find a community of people that you love and respect and trust and just buy a house and don't move. Maybe that's Franciscan. Sorry, maybe that's Steubenville. Maybe that's someplace in Wyoming or even in California, there's great communities there around TAC and other places.

Find a place and plant yourself there. Yeah. One of the things I like about Steubenville is you have this strong Catholic community in a kind of run-down town. And I am not saying that you can't have a solid, healthy Catholic community that you create from scratch. I'm sure you can. But I think we can all see how things could go pear-shaped in a community like that. And many of us may have examples of how things went pear-shaped. They have the best intentions, but it's very insular and it can get weird. I'm not saying always. I think there's some great Catholic communities that are trying to begin right now. Veritatis Splendor down in Tyler, Texas would be one of them. But I personally

love that my kids encounter homeless people and see a rundown town that's trying to grow again. I love that. I also love that my kids get exposed to college students who love the faith. I took my kids to confession last night at Franciscan. There's always confession available. So I went to the university. There was probably, confession started at seven to eight.

We got there at 6.50. And I'd say there was about 30 people in front of us. And there are all these beautiful college students, you know, university students, whatever. And that was just terrific. It's so lovely to have my kids exposed to that. So I would recommend doing that. I would much rather live here in community than in Hawaii without it. I'm not saying you can't find community in Hawaii, you know.

But I love living here. Have I said that? All right. What else? Matt, why are you drinking a drink called liquid death? Is that really from God? Well, I think the water and the can would not exist without God, nor would the marketing, whatever you think about it. I think it's referring to killing your thirst.

So, you know, it's my favorite soda water, actually. Carly, g'day. I haven't seen you around before, so it's lovely to see you here. If your ministry wasn't online-based, would you cut the internet out of your life like you have for the past month? Yeah, I think I would. I've actually been struggling this month with two competing thoughts. One is, maybe I should just quit my job. Maybe I should quit Pints of Aquinas. And then another part of me says, no, you should be

more grateful for what the Lord has given you. And you should take responsibility for the modest platform that you've been given and not whine about wanting to be offline. I'm so afraid of becoming a Catholic hack. Maybe I am one. And saying, well, but Matt, like your podcast has really helped people. Yeah, but everyone's podcast has helped somebody. You know, like if you have more than 10 listeners to your podcast, you've probably had one of them reach out to you and say, this really helped me. But I don't know if that's a good reason to go on forever. Like how long is Pints with Aquinas supposed to go on? Is it the next 10 years, 20, 50 until I'm like 82? I don't know if that's a good reason to go on forever. Like how long is Pints with Aquinas supposed to go on? Is it the next 10 years, 20, 50 until I'm like 82? I don't know. So I was just like praying, Lord, what do you want? How do I be obedient to your will? And

how do I know that I'm even open to doing your will? But I was actually in Savannah and I was with Seamus Coughlin who runs Freedom Tunes, great YouTube channel if you haven't checked it out, Freedom Tunes. And he was so great because he was experiencing something similar. And he said to me, you know, we need to pray to be grateful because if somebody handed us this apostolate, whether that be Pines of the Quintessence or Freedom Tunes, as it is today, and went, hey, I want you to run it for now and have all the benefits of it. If we showed the same gratitude towards them as we are currently to God and the hard work we've put into it we'd be they'd be really offended so i'm grateful to almighty god for this for this blessing um and i and i pray it's a blessing and i pray i'm not a catholic hack and if i am i pray that i'll

repent who knows they're a hack you know that's That's the thing. How do you know? After I get off the smartphone for a while, one thing I'd like to do is go off email. I just want to gradually detach myself. That's very nice of everybody saying don't quit. Yes, yes, yes. Thank you very much. Hey, I want to show you guys something.

Excuse me. All right, I want to show you this. Oh, gosh, I can't find it. Oh. I cannot believe you're sticking around through this. There's no way I would. I would just be gone. I want to show you, if I can.

Let's see if I can do this. Oh. I want to show you Ethos Logos Investments. I advertised with these guys before. They're going to come back on this month. I've, when I was, I guess, never really thought of investing, but you might want to check it out. Ethos Logos Investments. I'll put a link in the description below. Especially check it, chatting with people here in Steubenville who are talking

about how important it is that we support places that are supporting the common good that aren't kind of contributing to sex trafficking or pornography or environmental depletion, unnecessary environmental depletion or things like that, you might consider going to Ethos Logos Investments. It's elinvestments.net, elinvestments.net. It says, we all want to make the world a better place. The magnitude of the challenge can be discouraging. The solution is to focus on our own sphere of influence. Ethos Logos Investments enables good people to expand their sphere of influence via faith-based socially and environmentally responsible investing while edifying those investors with complete honest financial advice and service. So it's elinvestments.net if you're interested in looking into them. I'm looking

forward to learning more about them because I don't have a lot, I don't think, to invest right now, but I'd like to do more of that. Okay, I'm going to start to wrap up now, I think. Brian says, are the new polity guys okay with Ethos Logos investments? I don't know. They might not be. I don't even know what I think of the new polity guys. Like Jacob Imam is one of my best mates here in Steubenville, and I'm still like dubious about certain things that he says. So you and I can process that together. But I haven't asked them actually.

Guys, this has been a pleasure. Thank you for being here. Thank you for your support. Thank you for watching here. Thank you for your support. Thank you for watching me. And this, this is just such an honor. And I am so grateful to be here, even if I am a Catholic hack. I am so glad to do this work. I'm so glad to introduce you to some beautiful guests that I'll be flying in over the course of the next month or two and beyond. I'm so excited to hire Catholic Jamie, who you'll learn more about soon. I really do ask, though, if you love Pints with Aquinas and you want to see to it that I can afford to pay a full-time video guy, an assistant, if we want to start a tequila con aquino, if I'm to pay debaters, which I do, right? Even when they're online, I pay them.

If I'm to pay debaters, which I do, right? Even when they're online, I pay them. If I can keep affording to fly people out and put them up in hotel rooms and not to mention make a salary for myself and live in Steubenville and send my kids to college and things like that, please support us. Patreon.com slash Matt Fradd. Patreon.com slash Matt Fradd. Or go give at pintswithaquinas.com slash give. When you do, we give you free things in return like books and beer steins and stickers and you get access to online courses that we're continually cranking out and I do pray it's a blessing to you. If you don't want to, no worries, but if you could, do it. Honestly, I think the main hassle for people isn't the giving,

it's the pulling out their credit card thing. I think most people are like, sure, I'd buy you a coffee every month. I'd give you 10 bucks a month. That's fine. Or two coffees, you know, but I gotta fly my credit card. Like I know it's a pain. Um, so if you do it, I just want you to know I'm super grateful. Um, cause I'm, I'm pumped just about making this channel the best it can be. And look, I got a middle camera, like here's one expense. I got a middle camera here that keeps blacking out and I got to buy a brand new camera and that's over two grand. No worries. So thank you to all of my patrons who are watching because you are what keeps the show going. You're what will be paying for this camera and the different equipment that we're going to have setting up. So thank you. Oh my gosh. I'm sorry. I just saw a comment that I just need to call out.

So rotten of you to say, this is why I don't miss the internet is because of people like Nancy. So rotten of you to say that you are not having sex with your wife right now. First of all, I don't think I said that explicitly. I think I said that sometimes in marriage, abstinence is called for, you know, when your spouse is sick. This is something my wife speaks openly about on her podcast. I'm not divulging anything she would not have me divulge. So there's that. And then she says, that's like putting up a sign for women to hit on you. Okay, I really don't think so. Calm down. First of all, I don't think anyone would be interested in hitting on me. And that's absolutely not why I said it. So I'm sorry that your husband did that. I'm sorry for whatever wounds you've received because of your stuff. That sucks, but that's not my issue and it's not my wife's issue. So I hope you'll find healing and maybe try to be a little bit more charitable next time when you hear people express personal things. God bless y'all. Bye.