HeightsCast: Forming Men Fully Alive

A surprising number of Catholic conversions in the last hundred years begin with one man: G. K. Chesterton. A modern Catholic favorite, Chesterton looms large in subjects as diverse as theology, satire, marginalia, philosophy, politics, and mystery fiction.

Our guest today is Dale Ahlquist, founder and president of the Society of Gilbert Keith Chesterton. His own journey of conversion started with Chesterton’s The Everlasting Man. In our conversation, we visit many of Chesterton’s ideas, concluding with the much misunderstood “distributism”—a Chestertonian practical philosophy and the subject of Ahlquist’s co-edited book of essays titled Localism: Coming Home to Catholic Social Teaching.

1:53 Conversion by way of Chesterton

6:17 Chesterton: a “complete thinker”

8:16 Reading recommendations

12:05 The opening of Everlasting Man

13:56 The ending of Man Who Was Thursday

17:16 Fairy tales and fundamental truths

19:18 “The twitch upon the thread”

22:27 Defining distributism, or localism

30:13 Localism for D.C. (sub)urbanites

33:44 Founding schools: localism in action

39:11 Family enterprises

42:19 The contributors to Localism

45:31 Creating a life of localism where you are

Localism: Coming Home to Catholic Social Teaching edited by Dale Ahlquist and Michael Warren Davis

The Everlasting Man by G. K. Chesterton

G. K. Chesterton: The Apostle of Common Sense by Dale Ahlquist

Common Sense 101: Lessons from G. K. Chesterton by Dale Ahlquist

Orthodoxy by G. K. Chesterton

St. Thomas Aquinas by G. K. Chesterton

St. Francis of Assisi by G. K. Chesterton

Father Brown: The Essential Tales by G. K. Chesterton

“The Roots of the World” by G. K. Chesterton

The Man Who Was Thursday: A Nightmare by G. K. Chesterton

Men in the Making, Alvaro de Vicente’s substack featuring original articles

What Should a Catholic University Be? at The Heights School (December 7, 2024)

Episode 1: The Homework Problem, newly launched Forum Faculty Podcast hosted by Tom Cox featuring round-table discussions with veteran teachers

It turns out that modern psychology, neuroscience research, “habit hacks,” and popular self-help literature can all be summed up in one very classical idea: the virtues.

So asserts Dr. Andrew Abela, founding dean of the Busch School of Business at The Catholic University of America. This week on HeightsCast, he helps us unpack his new book, Superhabits, in which he rebrands the virtues as “superhabits” to suit the contemporary discourse. Then, with the help of Thomas Aquinas and about a dozen gripping stories, Dr. Abela shows us how these superhabits of virtue are described, developed, and supported by modern research as the way to live a good life.

• 2:20 Virtues: the essential human operating system
• 5:19 Humans pre-wired for virtue
• 9:14 Psychology research, self-help books all point back to virtues
• 17:57 “Anatomy of Virtue” diagram
• 25:57 The role emotions play
• 29:12 Virtue gets easier!
• 33:21 Translating virtue into “superhabits”
• 37:19 Redirecting anger with gentlefirmness
• 43:22 Finding restful leisure with eutrapelia
• 48:41 Where to begin

• Superhabits: The Universal System for a Successful Life by Andrew Abela
• Dr. Abela’s Substack featuring blog posts and articles
• “The Anatomy of Virtue” by Andrew Abela, including his diagram of Aquinas’s categories of virtue
• Treatise on the Virtues by Thomas Aquinas

• The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg
• Atomic Habits by James Clear
• Tiny Habits by B. J. Fogg
• The Virtues by John Garvey
• Learning the Virtues that Lead You to God by Romano Guardini
• The Heart of Virtue: Lessons from Life and Literature Illustrating the Beauty and Value of Moral Character by Donald DeMarco

• Fathers Conference at The Heights School (November 2, 2024)
• The Art of Teaching Conference at The Heights School (November 13-15, 2024)

• Free Hearts and Magnanimity featuring Alexandre Havard
• From Anxiety to Adventure: On Reframing Challenges featuring Kevin Majeres
• Emotions Fully Alive: Forming Boys’ Affectivity Pt. I featuring Joe Cardenas
• Emotions Fully Alive: Forming Boys’ Affectivity Pt. II featuring Joe Cardenas

Note from producer: This conversation was originally published on March 23, 2021, but has been updated and republished on June 13, 2024.

As we look forward to the wide expanse of summer, one thing certainly on our minds is how we can support our sons’ friendships in the absence of school. Turns out, we needn’t look further than our own living rooms. In fact, welcoming our children’s friends into our homes may be the healthiest place for authentic, lifelong friendship to grow.

In a timely rebroadcast from 2021, Assistant Headmaster Tom Royals helps parents to see their homes as a venue for hospitality—one that integrates our children’s social lives with the culture of the home. He especially highlights a vision for hosting teens, who often stray away from home-based gatherings just when it’s most beneficial.

• 01:45 Begin Interview
• 02:28 Parents building a culture of home gatherings
• 06:50 Hosting high schoolers, knowing your home
• 11:24 Co-ed hosting
• 12:56 Spontaneous hosting
• 15:05 Parents working with parents
• 16:12 Crucial years: establishing this culture before they launch
• 18:14 Hospitality and the temperaments of your children
• 20:24 The example of Fr. Robert Kimball
• 25:28 The role of the father
• 29:01 Parental presence at teen gatherings: freedom and formation
• 33:07 Modeling friendship, hospitality

• Friendship and the 21st-Century Boy featuring Alvaro de Vicente
• Family Culture featuring Alvaro de Vicente
• On Friendship after Senior Year featuring Dave Maxham

Dr. Yaceczko and Mr. Breslin discuss how we, as parents and teachers, can guide our boys through the ever expanding realm of modern children's literature-- some of it great, some of it fine, some of it pernicious.

In this episode, our guest (an AP U.S. History teacher) and our host (an AP Government teacher) delve into the worthy American most likely missing from your U.S. history or government class.

Orestes Brownson was a nineteenth-century political thinker who wrote about the American project through his unique lens as a post-Civil War American-Catholic. He was well known in his time but is often only featured in the footnotes for the Election of 1840, the Transcendental Movement, and the Emancipation Proclamation. Brownson’s essays, though, belong in the classroom. They seek to answer with optimism and insightful reflection: what is this country all about? For what did our sons die in this great Civil War?

4:20 Why read Brownson?

10:11 A religious and political wanderer

14:01 Arrives at the Catholic Church

17:00 Magnus opus: The American Republic

21:57 “Territorial democracy”

27:44 History as human experience

28:51 Territorial democracy and American Union

32:31 Missteps of democracy

36:54 Brownson’s vision: “Freedom of each with advantage to the other”

37:41 Yet history repeats itself

41:47 America’s role in the story of history

44:55 “Unwritten constitution”

49:36 The task of the modern teacher

54:24 One’s development of ideas over time

The American Republic by Orestes Brownson

“Democratic Principle” by Orestes Brownson

Orestes Brownson Symposium hosted by the American Family Project

“Catholic Lives: Orestes Brownson, the American Newman” on Controversies in Church History

On Faith and Beauty in Churches talk by Joe Cardenas at The Heights School (February 1, 2025)

Series for Heights Fathers: Accompanying Our Sons as They Grow in Understanding of Human Sexuality at The Heights School (Thursdays in February 2025)

Parents’ Conference: Freedom and Addiction at The Heights School (April 12, 2025) link coming soon

Teaching Men’s Conference at The Heights School (October 2025) link coming soon

ChatGPT Holds These Truths to Be Self-Evident by Mark Grannis

The Importance of Ugly History by Mark Grannis

Keeping the Story in History by Mark Grannis

Seeing History: On Using Images in the History Classroom by Kyle Blackmer

Patriotism and Piety: Honoring Founders and Fathers featuring Matthew Mehan