Catching Foxes

"I'm like wildly obese, right?" Gomer says about eight minutes in, somewhere between defending his protein shake and bringing up David Goggins. He's down thirty pounds. Luke's question, which takes him forty-five minutes to ask outright, is why a guy who'll do all this won't call a therapist.

In This Episode:

Gomer's actual answer for why he hasn't gone to therapy — he wants the story to be that he white-knuckled it and everything was fine. He calls that a tool of the devil.

A listener with an eating disorder background once wrote in to say that picking a diet can just be the disorder wearing different clothes. Gomer calls it a brilliant way of looking at it and then applies it to himself.

Why Gomer does mobility work now. His dad's cartilage wore down to bone on bone, walking got hard so he walked less, and the hip replacement in March was followed by death in June.

75 Hard, laid out rule by rule: two forty-five-minute workouts three hours apart with one outdoors in whatever the weather is, ten pages of a nonfiction book, a gallon of water, daily progress photos, no snacks or dessert or alcohol, and back to day one if you miss anything.

The book Luke handed him fifteen years ago, which argues that a man who doesn't brush his teeth isn't making a statement about conformity. He's hurting himself on purpose.

Chapters:

00:00: Intro

00:25: His father's ashes, and the song he tried to write with AI

05:11: Three kinds of protein in one glass, and whether that counts as extreme

10:30: Neglect as a form of self-hatred

13:56: What a fall after sixty-five actually means

16:42: Dante's circles, and how small things become big ones

21:24: ADHD, water, and why extremes come easier than habits

24:24: 75 Hard, explained in full

31:53: Mobility work, and his father's hip

38:01: Finding the parts of it you actually like

45:54: Why he still hasn't gone to therapy

51:49: The box downstairs he cannot make himself open

Resources Mentioned:

Catching Foxes on Substack: https://catchingfoxes.substack.com/

No More Mr. Nice Guy by Dr. Robert Glover: https://nomoremrniceguy.com/

75 Hard: https://andyfrisella.com/pages/75hard-info

Exodus 90: https://exodus90.com/

Pray More Retreat: https://praymoreretreat.org/

Produced by Saint Kolbe Studios https://saintkolbestudios.com/

Luke brings up a topic he has been nervous to raise: does the way American Catholics apply the Church's teaching on birth control account for what happens to a person's freedom under real constraint? It's a good conversation. It's not heterodox (we promise). No need to send that email.

Gomer walks through his own family's case and then through what the Church actually says about grave matter, full knowledge, and consent of the will. The conversation runs long enough that the fellas decide to finish it next episode.

In This Episode:

Luke's caveats before the topic: not arguing the Church's teaching, not arguing Humanae Vitae, only asking what full consent looks like when someone's freedom is genuinely constrained

Gomer's own case—three miscarriages, an ectopic pregnancy that almost killed Shannon, the doctor's warning that another pregnancy could kill her, and the principle of totality that had to be satisfied before a hysterectomy could be recommended

The three conditions for mortal sin, and what pornography, hypersexualization, and monetary inflation do to knowledge and consent

Having a lot of kids as a measure of Catholic seriousness, the people who feel judged for three or four, and the practical questions about the pill, IUDs, and abstinence

Occasions of sin and why this became a two-part conversation

Resources Mentioned:

Catching Foxes Website

Pope Francis Generation

Humanae Vitae by Pope St. Paul VI

Love and Responsibility by Karol Wojtyła

Catching Foxes on Substack

Chapters:

00:00: Intro

02:15: Rethinking the American Catholic approach to birth control

04:59: Humanae Vitae, and what is not up for debate here

07:53: Full consent, the unitive good, and when NFP does not work

10:16: Gomer's story—miscarriages, an ectopic pregnancy, and the principle of totality

16:49: What mortal sin requires, and growing up in a culture of death

23:48: Settled teaching and where the Church is still exploring

31:38: The pill, IUDs, and abstinence that wounds the marriage

35:10: Psychological impairment, cultural conditioning, and mitigated guilt

50:25: The alcoholic, the crack addict, and near occasions of sin

01:01:09: IVF, the heroically moral choice, and postpartum realities

01:07:40: Unitive and procreative—von Hildebrand, Wojtyła, and splitting the conversation

Produced by Saint Kolbe Studios

Luke opens with a confession—he got fuming mad at a Catholic content creator online, posted about it on Instagram, and deleted it in the middle of the night—which turns the show into a long conversation about what men are supposed to do with rage.

Dave VanVickle walks through lifting, prayer, and the confessional as outlets. He gets into Taekwondo's golden age, cage matches in Buffalo, and the night he took a knife in the back and still loaded the two men he knocked out into his truck bed and drove them to the emergency room.

In This Episode:

Luke's temper flare at a Catholic content creator who used a photo of the Pope to score a point about liturgy, the Instagram post he tagged him in, and the middle-of-the-night regret that made him delete it

Dave's outlets for rage plus his read that watching the news right now should make a normal man angry

Gomer on anger as a blanket over your life, why a lot of anger at the world is really anger at yourself, and giving up the news in 2019

The rad trad and Vatican II debate, Peter Kreeft's question about whether any of those posts are well processed, and Dave building a middle school philosophy course

The study claiming the average American man thinks he's 400% more effective in a fight than he actually is

Resources Mentioned:

Philosophy 101 by Socrates by Peter Kreeft

Forming Intentional Disciples by Sherry Weddell

Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace

Evangelii Nuntiandi by Pope St. Paul VI

Catching Foxes on Substack

Support Dave VanVickle on Patreon

Chapters:

00:00: Welcome and Dave's New Middle Name

01:58: Luke's Anger Problem and the Influencer Who Set It Off

08:39: Lifting, Running, and Prayer as Outlets

10:57: The Manosphere and Men Who Stopped Reading

14:42: Gomer on Turning the Anger Dial Down

21:08: Rad Trads, Vatican II, and Peter Kreeft's Question

25:45: Infinite Jest and the Parasocial Prophecy

27:56: Teaching Plato to Seventh Graders

33:25: Dave's Complete Fighting Résumé

42:16: The Knife in the Back at Shenanigans

50:20: It's Not Like the Movies and the 400% Study

1:08:00: Closing Question—Combat Sports and the NFL

Produced by Saint Kolbe Studios

Luke and Gomer talk about the passing of Gomer's father, but the episode isn't all doom and gloom (just the appropriate amount). Also included this week: an attempted murder, gray-market drugs, and a review of The Odyssey.

In This Episode:

Luke and Gomer compare notes on sleep, snoring, and inheriting their dads' blood pressure meds

The legend of Dave Van Vickel: grocery deliveries, a mid-street knife fight, and a jury summons

A review of The Odyssey movie, mythology demythologized, and Elliot Page's casting

Gomer reflects on his father's death, anticipatory grief, the Sirach 38 reading, and the funeral

Don Gormley's Shell/Texaco career stories, plus Luke's deep dive into nasal breathing, buzz breathing, nitric oxide, and gray-market Redatrutide

Chapters:

00:00: Intro — Sleep Problems and a New YouTube Rabbit Hole

06:09: Blood Pressure Meds, Family History, and Following in Dad's Footsteps

08:21: The Legend of Dave Van Vickel (Knife Fights and Groceries)

16:53: Sponsor — Faith Mosier, Dallas Healing House

18:37: The Odyssey Movie Review

24:41: Back to Dad — Carrying His Ashes and the Sirach 38 Reading

32:11: Anticipatory Grief, Hard Conversations, and the Funeral

1:00:47: Don Gormley's Career — From Skelly Oil to the Shell Tanker Standoff

1:10:04: Sponsor — Cloister Ignatian Prayer App

1:14:16: Welcome to the Dead Dads Club

1:16:34: Nasal Breathing, Buzz Breathing, and Nitric Oxide

1:32:02: Redatrutide, GLP-1s, and Wrapping Up

Resources Mentioned:

Dallas Healing House

Cloister Ignatian Prayer

ParishSOFT

Catching Foxes Substack

Produced by Saint Kolbe Studios

Gomer's dad is out of the hospital and in a care home and this episode starts there, in the territory of walking a parent toward the end of his life. Luke and Gomer work through the lessons Gomer has picked up in the trenches: what hospitals won't tell you, how to have the DNR conversation, and why AI has become an unlikely companion through all of it.

In This Episode:

Why hospitals won't spell out what's actually happening with your loved one and how Gomer used AI to decode his dad's medical charts and communicate clearly with family

Lesson one from the hospital: no one will tell you what's going on unless you make them, and the only people who will are in palliative care

The do-over myth and why middle age is when you realize the world stopped giving them to you—you don't go back, you live with the scar tissue

The DNR conversation: what it actually means, why outside-of-hospital DNR requires a signed document on the door, and why you should have it sooner than you think

When specialists miss the whole person: how productivity-driven, siloed medicine can leave no one reading the full picture

Chapters:

00:00: Welcome Back

00:46: Gomer's Dad and the Care Home

02:08: Lesson One—Hospitals Won't Tell You Anything

07:25: Luke's Dad and Losing People Too Soon

20:00: The Gradual Decline You Can't See Coming

24:00: Reality, Do-Overs, and the Things That Can't Be Undone

29:38: When Specialists Miss the Whole Person

37:54: The DNR Conversation

41:47: Big Fish and What We Learn from Our Parents' Stories

48:21: What Parents Say When They Think It's Time

53:23: AI, Claude, and the Bot That Said It Was Praying for You

Resources Mentioned:

Rebuilding Mum and Dad (YouTube)

Catching Foxes on Substack

Produced by Saint Kolbe Studios