Intrinsically Ordered

Former youth minister (and current Catholic) Ashley Kiefer joins me to talk about the messy overlap of faith, OCD, and scrupulosity. We trace her journey from professional Catholic youth worker to licensed therapist, why quoting the catechism at every problem stopped working, and how therapy forced her to learn actual listening instead of spiritual “fixing.” We dig into what scrupulosity really is...

I got invited by  @HeliocentricOfficial to one of the biggest evangelical Christian YouTuber conferences in the country… as a gay atheist. Surrounded by Christian apologists, pastors, influencers, Mormons, Catholics, and some of the biggest names in Christian internet culture, I spent three days asking a simple question: why am I still an atheist after all of this? From debates on the Trinity to c...

What if the Latin Mass isn’t the magic solution everyone online says it is? In this episode of the Intrinsically Ordered Podcast, I sit down with Kevin Non-Trad, who was literally born into an FSSP Latin Mass community, went to the parish school in the church basement, prayed the rosary in Latin, and watched his childhood classmates quietly drift away from the faith. I come from the opposite direc...

I've been working on this case for almost a year now - and I figured I'd give you the ultimate guide to understanding what is evening happening with conversion therapy and the Supreme Court. In this video, I break down the law, the arguments, and what the majority, concurrence, and dissent actually say. More importantly, I explain what the case is really about—because the framing of the...

In this episode of the Intrinsically Ordered Podcast, I sit down with Griffin to hear one of the most intense and personal stories I’ve encountered about growing up gay in a Christian environment. We talk about what it’s like to be taught that your identity is sinful, the psychological toll of trying to “pray the gay away,” and how systems of shame, guilt, and fear can shape the way you see yourse...

*Skip to 01:23:00 - if you just want to see the slavery bit* After a few months off podcasting, I came back with one of the wildest conversations I’ve had with a Catholic apologist. This is my third debate with Noah from  ⁨@Jesus.andwhatnot⁩   and we start in a pretty normal place: the historicity of Jesus, what (if anything) we can know from the sources, how reliable the Gospels are, and whether...

I got to sit down in person with fellow ex-Catholic creator  ⁨@Nontradicath⁩   for a long-awaited crossover: why we’re not Catholic anymore. Kevin shares his journey from being “born into” the traditionalist FSSP world—daily Latin Mass, grace-maxing, Marian devotions—to slowly realizing that so much of what he’d been taught as “history” looks a lot more like legend.  We talk Old Testament authorsh...

In this episode of Intrinsically Ordered, Cade sits down with gay Catholic writer and lawyer Chris Damian to unpack one of the most abused buzzwords in Catholic debates: natural law. They trace how Aristotle, Aquinas, and virtue ethics get flattened into YouTube talking points, why “sex is for babies and bonding” doesn’t actually settle anything, and how natural law gets weaponized against LGBT pe...

I sit down with Catholic YouTuber  @evan_raugust after a wild weekend where we went to seven churches in one weekend: Messianic Jewish, Catholic, Pentecostal, Orthodox, Anglican, non-denominational megachurch, and a Presbyterian church plant. Evan's full main channel video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHejO1GGbwU&t=651s We unpack how each community tells a different story about God, h...

Christian youtube video essays keep claiming that “LGBT ideology” ruined male friendship, but I have no clue what they're on about. As a gay ex-Catholic, I use my old theological training to look at the “and they were just roommates” discourse, the panic over male affection, and the erasure of queer couples from history. I also share my own story of trying to be a devout, rule-following Catho...

After debating together on the Ellen Fisher Podcast, Elijah Lamb (Gen-Z Christian preacher and well-known TikToker) and I (ex-Catholic, now atheist debater) sat down to unpack Gen-Z Catholicism, Protestant/Catholic/Atheist debate culture, and why certainty theater replaces discipleship. We talk caricatures (“read church history, become Catholic”), denominational hopping, Mary/Eucharist misundersta...

My infographic about this case: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1a6-vYf6qIZ8r9xS3G_dRGTaF6qi-hOVK/view?usp=sharing A new “victim” has entered the culture war stage at the Supreme Court. After the “No Cake” baker and the “No Website” designer, meet “No Therapy” Kaley— a Christian counselor recruited by well-funded right-wing legal groups to challenge Colorado’s bipartisan ban on conversion therapy...

On this episode of The Intrinsically Ordered Podcast, I sit down with SC Neely—therapist, author of 30+ books, and specialist in religious trauma and queer/trans identity. We explore the real signs of religious trauma, how it overlaps with complex PTSD, and the unique challenges queer people face when deconstructing from high-control religious environments. We cover the roadmap from questioning to...

In this episode, I share my raw and personal journey through Catholicism—from being raised in a suburban Catholic family to becoming an intense religious fundamentalist who nearly entered a monastery. I explain what it was like to give every waking moment to prayer, theology, and the dream of becoming a monk, only to have my life upended when I was rejected for being gay. What followed was a painf...

What happens when you attend a traditional Latin Catholic Mass in the morning and a drag brunch in the afternoon? Surprisingly, these seemingly opposite worlds share more than you’d expect. In this episode, we unpack seven parallels between Catholic liturgy and drag performance—from ritual and belonging to performance, morality, and meaning. For us, this isn’t about mockery. It’s about understandi...

In this episode of Intrinsically Ordered, Evelyn from  @leavelaughlove   joins me to tackle one of the hardest questions we get asked: how do you talk to loved ones who are falling into fundamentalist Catholicism? We unpack: Why people get drawn into high-control religious groups How to maintain healthy boundaries without burning bridges Why “debating” rarely changes minds Compassionate approaches...

In this episode of Intrinsically Ordered, I sit down with Isabelle, who grew up immersed in traditional Catholicism—daily rosaries, novenas, and all. Over time, she shifted toward progressive Catholicism before beginning a slow and painful unraveling of belief. We talk about mental health, OCD masked as virtue, the reality of Catholic marriage and NFP, gender and sexuality, and the psychological m...

In this episode of Intrinsically Ordered, I'm joined by Greg and Oliver—two seasoned left-wing voices who’ve appeared on Jubilee, the Whatever podcast, and in brutal six-hour debates with professional sexists, racists, and homophobes. Together, we unpack the ethics of debate, how to survive the emotional toll, what it’s like to be in the room with Jordan Peterson or Michael Knowles, and why t...

I sat down with Darian, a gay creator who once wanted to be a Catholic priest and now runs an OnlyFans—while still attending Mass. We talked about scrupulosity, being queer in the church, spirituality beyond dogma, and the surprising peace he found in ritual. Darian's story is messy, funny, thoughtful, and deeply honest—and it challenges what it means to be both gay and Catholic in a polarize...

Jared from Heliocentric joins me to talk about his experience attending a Latin Mass for the first time and what it reveals about the explosive growth of Rad Trad Catholicism online. We dive into the aesthetics, the online media machine, the psychology of conversion, and how social media fuels religious radicalization. We also reflect on sexuality, the pain of being gay in the Church, and our shar...

In this episode of the Intrinsically Ordered Podcast, I’m joined again by Noah from Jesus and Whatnot for part two of our deep-dive into what the Bible says—or doesn’t say—about homosexuality. As a gay atheist and former almost-priest, I argue that the biblical texts don’t clearly address modern queer relationships. Noah, now a confirmed Catholic, brings the counterpoint: that Scripture plainly co...

I got to sit down with  @bradyvandruenen55 , a former Catholic school student and hockey player from small-town Canada, to hear his powerful story of growing up gay in a conservative Catholic environment. We dive into Catholic sex ed, hockey locker room culture, the mental gymnastics of trying to be someone you're not, and what it was like to finally break free and come out. This one’s for an...

This is the ultimate guide to coming out—philosophically, practically, and personally. Whether you’re just starting to question your identity, preparing for your first conversation, or figuring out how to rebuild your life after coming out, this video is for you. As someone who almost became a Catholic priest and now helps coach others through the coming out process, I’ve condensed everything I kn...

In this episode of Intrinsically Ordered, Cade chats with Evelyn from Leave Laugh Love about the hidden world of Newman Guide colleges — those elite, ultra-conservative Catholic universities designed to "protect" young adults from the real world. Evelyn shares her experience attending Franciscan University, the cult-like enforcement of Catholic morality, the double lives queer students a...

Join the community and join the group discussion on discord: https://www.patreon.com/c/gayextrad I’m joined by Kevin for a deep dive into one of Catholicism’s most emotionally compelling and scientifically dubious claims: Eucharistic miracles. You’ve heard the stories—bread turning into heart tissue, bleeding hosts, and baffled scientists—but how well do these claims hold up to scrutiny? Kevin wal...