Manhood Restored

Episode 69 Having recently established the difficulty of belief (see Episode 67), the challenge becomes how to encourage the unbeliever to consider conversion.  This is part 2 of said challenge - the Protestant's attempt.  It makes for a nice comparison, contrast, and compliment to last week's Catholic edition (see Episode 68)!  Ben's the Starter for this episode, taking aim, windin...

Episode 68 With an episode about the difficulty of belief under our belts (see Episode 67), we each take the challenge of giving our best "pitch" to unbelievers: why should you believe in Christianity?  This is part one of that challenge, the Catholic's approach; a manly exercise of truth-telling aimed at a segment of the population in search for meaning.  We hope it provides a usef...

Episode 67 - Guest Hosts, Jason Stolly and Randy Garman Here goes with another lively roundtable discussion, all four mics turned up, on a curiously uncomfortable leading question!  Two hosts and two guest hosts peer through the discomfort, seeking answers to the many questions implied by the question at hand.  Will they be able to draw down to any conclusions by the episode's end?  (Let&apos...

Episode 66  It's hunting season...on men!  And the devil's got a quiver full of arrows!  There is no short supply of pointed attacks at the enemy's disposal.  If that's not bad enough, satan is the master of disguise, and some of us won't even realize we've been targeted until it's too late.   Ben brings his wheel of misfortune to the battle as the anit-Pat Sajak...

Episode 65 - Normalizing Sin Over the last ten years, our cultural conscience has arguably shifted significantly on the issue of homosexuality.  Even apart from things like increasingly frequent and favorable depictions in film and media, there have been also major legal victories such as Obergefell v. Hodges (2015) and the recent "Respect for Marriage Act" (2022).  These rapid shifts am...

Episode 64 - Scott Rupp and Tim Slye, Guest Convo Scott Rupp and Tim Slye are the founders of Kingdom Seasonings and Rubs (KSR), an award-winning seasonings company based in Northwest Ohio.  Scott and Tim started KSR as a way to help fund a men's ministry called the Pettisville Man Cave Ministries, which originated as a bible study in Scott's basement.  Man Cave Ministries is now a non-p...

Episode 63 - A Leader's Hierarchy of Needs This groundbreaking new behavioral model, patterned after Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, highlights the importance of such unique character traits as 'doing what you say you're going to do' and 'responding in a timely way.'  Okay, so maybe it's not that groundbreaking; and maybe those aren't (or shouldn't be...

Episode 62 - Be Thou Salty, O Christian Man After Christ calls his followers "salt of the earth", he warns against the loss of said saltiness, saying that the flavorless are only good for being "thrown out and trampled underfoot."  Regardless of how one might describe salt--pungent, preservative, potent--it would, based on Christ's words, seem to be a quality critical to t...

Episode 61 - Branden Rushton, Guest Convo Branden Rushton is the Director of the new Rush Sports Complex in Celina, Ohio, a 65,000 square foot facility designed for high quality sports and fitness programming year-round.  A basketball enthusiast who grew up in Columbus, Ohio, Branden went on to be a four-year starter for the Ohio Northern University basketball team.  After graduating with a degree...

Episode 60 - Hallowpalooza There is a growing popularity of all things Halloween in today's culture.  Contained within the modern observance of the holiday is everything from the innocuous child's trick-or-treat costume to the gratuitous celebration of the macabre.  Its prevalence--in house/yard decorations, the horror film genre, the haunted houses and cornfields--can hardly be ignored....

Episode 59 - Warring with Emotionality One of life's inevitabilities is that it will throw you curve balls.  Whether those curve balls come in form of life-altering events or minor annoyances, work stresses or personal trials, they also inevitably produce emotion.  We might not be able to dodge the curve balls, or squelch the emotions that follow, but we can control how those emotions are the...

Episode 58 - MAN TALK EDITION - Guest Hosts, Noah Stolly and TC Cipollone Cheers! to another four-mic, four-man roundtable discussion on a crucial leading question.  Our hosts and guest hosts wrestle with this two-ton topic, each winding down to a conclusion on how they will finally answer the question at hand.  (Listeners, weigh in by emailing mightymen@manhoodrestored.tv) Noah Stolly and TC Cipo...

Episode 57 - Cleveland and Conversion, Deshaun and Devotion Allegiance to a favorite sports team is a complex phenomenon deep in the psyche of a man.  Claiming a team as your "favorite" often starts at the tenderest of ages; following that team closely for years--through star players, through heartbreaks, through championship runs--creates a kind of unique loyalty, one that becomes curio...

Episode 56 - Defining Christian Masculinity ("with" Brad East) In an essay titled "On Christian Masculinity", author Brad East makes some thought-provoking arguments about how Christians ought to view masculinity.  In his critique, he sets his sights on books and blogs (and podcasts?) that popularize modern models for manhood, claiming they "turn 'being a man' in...

Episode 55 - Curtis Hamrick, Guest Convo Curtis Hamrick is the Executive Director of the Auglaize Mercer Business Education Alliance (AMBE), a non-profit organization that connects local students with local businesses for meaningful career opportunities in the two-county area.  Curtis graduated from Wright State University, spent 20 years as a vocational teacher at various area schools, and was bo...

Episode 54 - Sarcasm vs. Sincerity When it comes to sarcasm, there's a thin line between funny and hurtful.  Yet the use of sarcasm is still alive and well; it's arguably one of the bedrocks of our collective culture's sense of humor.  Further, sarcasm is so prevalent that it can often be difficult to distinguish when we're using it, why we're using it, and how it's b...

Episode 53 - The Parochial Man In the world of ideas there's no idea more subtly insidious than "sky's the limit".  It's an idea that plays softly in the background of modernity like a subliminal message, hinting to us that reality is but a construct.  Saying the world is without limits is a lie.  It denies facts, confuses priorities, and promotes perpetual discontentednes...

Episode 52 - The 52 Finale! It's officially been one year of the Manhood Restored podcast!  We made it!  52 episodes (the goal set when we started this thing)!  Thank you to our listeners, show guests, behind-the-scenes supporters, and everyone who's been a part of this first year.  We've decided to keep rolling into year two:  the new goal is 104 episodes!  We hope you're as e...

Episode 51 - Dan Teller, Guest Convo Dan Teller is the founder and director of The Good Shepard Catholic Montessori (GSCM) in Cincinnati, Ohio.  Since its founding in 1998, GSCM has grown from 28 students in Preschool and Kindergarten to over 200 students up through eighth grade.  Dan has dedicated his career to education, having worked in various public and private school settings, including bein...

Episode 50 - Indoctrination Station, Part 3 (Education) This is the final destination on the Ben Express, the last in a three-part series on the Marxist March through western institutions.  It's the topic that's been begging to be discussed, the station to end all stations:  the Indoctrination of Education.  News Flash:  Education in America is in a bad way.  Whether it's schools be...

Episode 49 - Raising the Selfie Generation It would seem nearly every generation of parents has a tendency to impugn certain cultural trends of their children's generation.  "Kids these days!" is the oft-quoted line of a frustrated mom or dad.  As meaningless as that tendency turns out to be in the end (kids do grow up and mature eventually!), parents of children born from 1995 to 2...

Episode 48 - Jason King, Guest Convo Jason King is a pastor at New Life Christian Center in Celina, OH, where he also helps replant and build churches abroad (Belize, Guatemala, Haiti, Peru, England, Wales) as Administrative Director for Apostolic Team Ministries (ATM).  In addition to marrying his high school sweetheart, raising four children, and coaching high school wrestling, Jason is currentl...

Episode 47 - Indoctrination Station, Part 2 (the Church) The train is back in the Indoctrination Station!  Now having visited the reeking realms of Media & Entertainment, this trip (the 2nd of a 3-part series) sets a course for new conversational territory:  the Marxist infiltration of the Christian church.   The landscape of one of the West's most cherished and trusted institutions has n...

Episode 46 - Veruca Salt Syndrome On June 24th, 2022, in Dobbs v. Jackson, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Constitution of the United States does not protect abortion as a right.  After nearly 50 years, the infamous Roe v. Wade decision has been overturned, kicking the legal status of abortion back to the states.  In the days following the decision, the only story that's rivaled the dec...

Episode 45 - Nino Vitale, Guest Convo Nino Vitale is currently in his fourth term as an Ohio House Representative serving the 85th District.  He made a name for himself nationally by taking a strong, public stance against mask mandates during the 2020 pandemic.  He is a man led primarily by the conviction of his faith, a conviction that comes through in everything he does.  He's an NRA pistol...