The Dissident Dad Show

WE'RE BACK. Apologies for the week's long interruption. Today I lay out a personal theory for rebuilding American life from the ground up: move from an extractive economy to a rooted economy built on land, family, and local makers. I argue that sheep and an authentic wool sweater supply chain can create real jobs, restore small towns, and give families purpose that lasts across generatio...

We reflect on why leaving home suddenly feels hard, how a few chickens and a garden plan can root a family, and why we lean toward conservation over abstraction. We map out practical steps for land stewardship, local utility, and finding common ground with environmentalists. • schedule changes for the coming week and travel uncertainty • falling in love with home through small daily chores • chick...

Welcome back. We choose to plant our flag in New England and build the life we want through family, faith, and local work. Wool becomes the emblem and engine of that plan, linking sheep to jobs, towns, and a durable regional legacy. • deciding to stay and create change rather than move • finding a parish that welcomes families and anchors Sabbath • embracing community as the basis for courage and...

Welcome back to new week of The Dissident Dad Show! Today, I share how I secure the chicken run, mourn two losses, and fix winter gaps with hardware cloth and cinder blocks. Then I introduce Globalism Slayer, a curated X thread for family-run, local businesses, and map a path to rebuilding American manufacturing through a wool sweater startup grounded in faith and community. • weekend homestead pr...

Welcome to todays show where I trace my journey from demographic despair to determined hope, moving from plans to leave New England to a decision to plant roots, build community, and strengthen a vibrant Catholic life at home. A living parish, backyard hospitality, and a clear vision for land and legacy reset the map. • falling birth rates and the blackpilled mindset • scouting the South and the p...

Welcome back to the show and apologies for missing yesterday's, as I've said, I have a home full of many young children and they can at times consume he morning making it impossible to record, so I don't fight it, and just welcome it. But today, I decided it importantly to get into why I call the show, "The Dissident Dad Show" and why it has nothing to do with doomerish, a...

Welcome back to todays show as we continue to dig out from another storm and use the chicken run, frozen waterers, and kid-made snow mazes to explore subsidiarity—the simple principle that a household should handle what it can, with higher levels helping, not replacing. We trace how modern systems pull authority away from families and how small acts of production restore competence and joy. • defi...

Welcome back to a new week! A big New England storm drops more than twenty inches and hands our family a perfect snow day. We share why screens don’t belong on days like this, how the chickens handled the blizzard, and a broader rethink of what real learning looks like. • storm totals and first impressions • managing a chicken run in deep snow • the joy and community spark of snow days • why manda...

Welcome to today's episode, where I challenge the default faith in retirement accounts and explore how deferring money and effort can weaken families and towns. I offer a grounded path that balances basic savings with tangible assets, local enterprise, and skills that compound close to home. • the retirement trap mindset and its costs • penalties, access limits and deferred life • investing i...

Welcome back and apologies for show hiatus over the past few days, my studio was unavailable during the early morning hours when I usually record. Today I reflect on the quiet power of grandmothers, how missing maternal guidance shaped our first year as parents, and why elder presence still matters. I also weigh in on the perversion of motherhood through surrogacy and the ethics of surrogacy versu...

Today, I recite my weekly Substack essay, released every Friday morning. On it I argue that the strongest form of patriotism starts at home and expands to neighbors and town, not national shouting matches. I map practical “bands of influence” and share concrete steps to build places where our kids want to live, work, and return. • choosing a home and daily family rhythms that shape character • bui...

Welcome to today's episode where we share how we raise our kids with freedom and guardrails, letting early mistakes teach while holding firm on a few clear norms. We explain why we reject compulsory schooling, how we defused screen taboos, and how dinner and bedtime became calm again. • freedom with guardrails as core principle • mistakes as the path to knowledge • critique of compulsory scho...

Welcome to today's show. It's a little shorter than others as it's my first true attempt to work through the idea of nihilism. I'm not expert on it by any means, but I think it's incredibly important to discuss. I start by tracing how nihilism shows up in daily life and why small acts of beauty at home push back. From warm lighting to welcoming architecture, seasonal garde...

Welcome to today's show, where I share why I chose a home-centered life after a missed med school bid, how homeschooling, faith, and a scrappy homestead shape our days, and why we’re betting on local craft and community to build a legacy. The plan is simple: deepen roots, thicken place, and invite others to help. • moving from Army service to homemaker dad and writer • bringing kids home from...

Welcome back, on today's show we push back on the youth sports grind and make the case for a home-centered life grounded in shared work, slow dinners and a small homestead. From ordering meat birds to planning ordinary time, we show how kids can own their passions without breaking the family. • rethinking competitive youth sports and the message it sends • letting children choose activities a...

Today, I recite today's newest essay publication on Kinward . I argue that modern comfort masks a dangerous illusion of control, and that homesteading—at any scale—reconnects us to seasons, duty and reverence. Winter’s demands humble us, sharpen our senses, and open a path to grateful, grounded living. • winter as the great humbler • the illusion of control in modern systems • mangoes in Janu...

Today, we reflect on the surprise that Christmas Tide continues past December 25 and how forgotten traditions can restore joy. Then we make the case for smaller, warmer houses with real rooms, real hearths, and real community nearby, ending with hope for ordinary time. • Christmas Tide begins on Christmas Day and lasts twelve days • The liturgical year offers a humane rhythm of feast and fast • Ol...

On today's episode, I share how family prayer during Christmastide reshapes our dinner table and why blessing the home on the twelfth day sets the tone for the year. A fox in the coop prompts a wider look at homesteading as a cure for complacency and a living answer to nihilism. • daily family prayer as a binding ritual • house blessing with chalk and holy water • the fox, the rooster and the...

Welcome back everyone, apologies for the break, needed time to think and reset the show, and now, with a candid plan: fewer scripts, more real life from the homestead, our parish, and the hard calls of fatherhood. We weigh service, community, and what it means to protect what is ours, from the pews to the chicken coop. • moving from scripted monologues to honest riffs • stay at home dad tradeoffs...

Today on The Dissident Dad Show, we walk through one ugly theme hiding inside six different headlines: they want custody of everything. We hit Chapel Hill’s school board bragging about dodging North Carolina’s Parents’ Bill of Rights, New York’s AG threatening school boards if they let parents speak honestly about boys in girls’ locker rooms, and San Jose’s mayor floating a plan to let kids waive...

We trace how a routine birth shot exposes the deeper story of vaccines: messy history, legal shields, shifting guidance, and parents stuck between warring experts. We share a practical framework for risk-based decisions and respectful conversations with doctors. • the birth-room consent problem and cultural pressure • mortality trends from sanitation versus vaccines • vaccine court, liability shie...

Who actually forms your kids. You, under your roof, or the machine that runs the schools, courts, and health systems. In this episode I walk through one random day of headlines that all point to the same ugly answer. A Maryland middle school coaching 11-year-olds on chest binding. A Maine “human rights” commission suing tiny districts for keeping boys out of girls’ sports. Loudoun County punishing...

In this episode I lay out, as simply as I can, what actually matters to me as a dad. Kids and wife. Womb to tomb respect for life. Raising our family in the truth of Jesus Christ and the Catholic Church. Small town roots, real work, parents at the center, and the six F’s that shape it all: Faith, Family, Friends and Community, Generational Fitness, Freedom, and Forever. I talk about eternalist gen...

Today’s episode is the first step in a new direction for the Dissident Dad Show. Less “headline factory,” more real talk for moms and dads trying to raise kids outside the machine. We start with the Feast of St. Nicholas and how to bring him back into your home in a real way: boots by the door, secret generosity, cookies shaped like a bishop, and teaching your kids that treasure in heaven actually...

In this episode, we look at what the system actually worships by watching who it protects in court. An Obama appointed judge steps in to save Planned Parenthood’s Medicaid money in 22 states, while small Christian pregnancy centers have to beg the Supreme Court just to keep hostile AGs out of their donor lists. Texas tries to shut down DEI struggle sessions and secret gender transitions in schools...