The BeatiDudes

Omar Aguilar joins the BeatiDudes this week, and he opens by admitting he used to be an atheist. Omar now hosts Perspectiva Católica for EWTN and leads Hispanic faith formation for the Knights of Columbus, but he tells Paul Kolker, Nick Bezner, and Jeff Schiefelbein exactly how he got there. It runs through a Eucharistic adoration night he almost walked out of, a night he came home high at sunrise to find his wife sitting with their one-month-old daughter, and a confession where the priest cut through years of overthinking with one line: "Is Jesus's mercy not enough?" A...

Before Tim Casey was helping build a 60-acre school on a former horse farm west of Boston, he was a 28-year-old sitting on a struggling school board. Four years later, the school folded. He was 32, had three kids, owned a house, and had a lien placed on his residence for obligations the school couldn't meet. He carried it for three years. And then - because apparently he didn't learn his lesson - he did it again. Twice.

Paul Kolker, Nick Bezner, and Jeff Schiefelbein get the whole story: the charter school experiment that almost worked, the virtues-based...

Tim Casey is a lawyer and CPA who spent his whole career in corporate America, and now he's the CFO of Holy Cross Family Ministries, an organization built by a priest who might be one of the best kept secrets in American Catholicism. Tim joins Paul Kolker, Nick Bezner, and Jeff Schiefelbein to talk about Father Patrick Peyton, the Holy Cross priest who set out to say the rosary with 10 million people and ended up reaching 28 million, started a movie studio in Hollywood that's still making films 80 years later, and is now buried in a rotunda outside Boston that's...

Nick Stumphauzer rejoins the BeatiDudes, and the conversation lands on something most guys get wrong about marriage: treating it like a problem to be solved.

Nick and the crew dig into why "solvable" is the wrong frame entirely. There's no checklist that ends conflict for good, and there's no finish line until you're delivering each other to heaven. Paul Kolker, Nick Bezner, and Jeff Schiefelbein land on something more useful instead: marriage success isn't the absence of tension, it's knowing where your teammate is, even when things are hard.

Stick around for the part on...

Nick Stumphauzer joins the BeatiDudes with a pitch nobody believed could work: a phone-blocking app so locked down that even the user can't hack their way out of it.

Nick never went to college. He trained as a filmmaker, made seven documentaries, and along the way got free from a pornography addiction despite being an atheist at the time. A few years later he had one question that changed everything: what would he pay each month to remove self-control from the equation entirely? That question became Shift, a tool built on the idea that the user should...

Joey Kramer lost $125,000 in his first year in business. Went bankrupt. Moved his family into his parents' rental house. And named his clinic Hope. Joey runs a chiropractic clinic built around a single principle, a Matthew Kelly book, and a lease buyout that showed up the exact day he needed it. He sits back down with Paul Kolker, Nick Bezner, and Jeff Schiefelbein to tell the origin story of Hope - why the clinic is named that, why it's purple, and why most of his patients assume it has something to do with TCU. Along the way he breaks...

Joey Kramer knew he needed to change his life the morning his construction boss walked in with Whataburger in one hand, a Route 44 Sonic in the other, bragging about the fifth of Jack he drank the night before. That was the pivot. From construction to chiropractic school, with no money, a wife who kept the family afloat, and a sheet of paper with three career options on it that he and Katie worked through using Ignatian discernment until one bucket filled up higher than the rest. Paul Kolker, Nick Bezner, and Jeff Schiefelbein dig into all of it...

Randy Hain says he had a 50-foot wall around his heart. No faith, no cracks, no way in. Then his son Alex was diagnosed with autism at 26 months old. And for the first time in his life, something got through. Randy joins Paul Kolker, Nick Bezner, and Jeff Schiefelbein to tell the full story - the years of feeling empty despite having everything, the wife who walked into a room full of moving boxes and asked him to look at the Catholic Church, the Irish priest who gave them seven books and met with them every Monday for two...

Randy Hain has mentored hundreds of leaders. He's been doing it for over a decade. And he'll tell you straight up - most mentorship is broken.

Not because people don't care. Because mentors talk too much, listen too little, and turn every conversation into a lecture. Randy knows because he's been on both sides of it.

He's an executive coach, 13-time author, former VP of People at Waffle House (yes, really), and a Catholic convert of 20 years. He joined Paul Kolker, Nick Bezner, and Jeff Schiefelbein at the Tiny Table to talk about what actually...

Seamus Harvey is back with the BeatiDudes for the Friday bonus episode, and this one hits differently.

The round-robin questions start fun (would you fix all your mistakes or take a million bucks right now?) and quickly go somewhere real. The guys talk about some of their greatest mistakes in life. A security vest stolen in college. A night that ended in handcuffs. A close call with firecrackers in 8th grade. Seamus Harvey joins Paul Kolker, Nick Bezner, and Jeff Schiefelbein -- each bringing something personal to the table. The conversation turns toward the grace hidden inside...

70 million views. Playing 6 different characters. On a fake Zoom call. About nothing.

Seamus Harvey is the guy behind Verso Jobs' viral content universe -- Corey the VP of Cross-Functional Synergies, Spencer the VP of Workforce Complacency, Igas the gaslighter, Charles Worthington in the turtleneck. He plays all of them at once in a TikTok filter, improvising corporate jargon so meaningless it somehow perfectly captures every meeting you've ever sat through. People think Braxton the Gen Z intern is a real person. He is not. Seamus is 26 and doing this alone in a room talking to a wall. ...

Peter Cooney came back for the Friday episode. And it got personal fast.

His youngest brother Christopher has Down syndrome. His oldest sister is a Dominican sister. And somewhere in between, Peter and his brother Thomas found time to build one of the most talked-about Catholic tech startups of the year.

Paul Kolker, Nick Bezner, and Jeff Schiefelbein go deeper with Peter on the stuff that doesn't make it into the pitch — what it's actually like growing up in a family shaped by a sibling with Down syndrome, the dinner table tradition Christopher refuses to sk...

A team of moral philosophers is deciding what your kids believe about gender, identity, and right and wrong. You didn't vote on it. Your kids didn't either. They're just online, asking questions, and getting answers shaped by people in Silicon Valley who don't share your values.

Peter Cooney noticed. And then he did something about it.

He's a college junior. He and his brother started building Acutis AI in December — a Catholic-values-based AI platform with parental controls and answers rooted in Church teaching, not groupthink. By April, the Cooney brothers appeared on Fox News.

...

Deacon Harold Burke-Sivers – known around the world as the “Dynamic Deacon” – is one of the most sought-after speakers in the Church today. He is a powerful and passionate evangelist and preacher whose no-nonsense approach to living and proclaiming the Catholic faith will challenge and inspire those who hear him.

Deacon’s newest book, Building a Civilization of Love – A Catholic Response to Racism, dives deep into the void in our culture today that is being filled by people using racism as a vehicle to push a different agenda. The conversation starts with an academic separation o...

Fr. Zach Burns joins The BeatiDudes for a hilarious and deeply moving conversation that starts with red beards, Franciscan height rankings, and the possibility that Fr. Zach may be the tallest friar in the world. Fr. Zach shares about growing up in a faithful Catholic family where Mass was non-negotiable, even if deep catechesis and prayer were not fully part of the family rhythm. With Paul Kolker, Nick Bezner, and Jeff Schiefelbein guiding the conversation around the Tiny Table, the episode quickly becomes a story about the seeds of faith, family formation, athletic identity, and the surprising ways God...

Magnus MacFarlane-Barrow is back with the BeatiDudes to share the story behind Lettie, a new documentary from Mary’s Meals that follows one young woman whose life was transformed through the simple gift of a daily meal at school. Magnus reflects on the danger of letting a mission as large as Mary’s Meals become only about numbers, targets, and scale, when the heart of the work is always the life of an individual child. Letty was first encountered in Malawi as a 12-year-old orphan caring for her younger brothers in heartbreaking poverty. Years later, after being enrolled in a sc...

Magnus MacFarlane-Barrow joins The BeatiDudes to share the extraordinary story of Mary’s Meals. This global movement began with two brothers, a pint of beer, and a desire to help those suffering during the war in Bosnia. What started as a single aid delivery from Scotland eventually grew into an international mission that feeds more than 3 million children every school day in 16 countries. Magnus explains how the work was never really his “plan,” but a gift from God that he is still unwrapping more than 30 years later.

In this conversation with Paul Kolker, Nick Bezner, and Jeff Schief...

Silas Mahner returns to the Tiny Table with the BeatiDudes for a lively Friday conversation full of big laughs, surprisingly deep questions, and a few strong breakfast-food opinions. Silas joins Paul Kolker, Nick Bezner, and Jeff Schiefelbein as they trade updates on what they are excited about right now, from family milestones and comedy work with the Texas Rangers to Jeff’s upcoming trip to the Fearless Congress in Guadalajara. Silas also shares the joyful news that he and his wife are expecting their second child, which naturally leads the table into jokes about family size, “family buffering,” and the da...

Silas Mahner joins the BeatiDudes for a conversation about Catholic entrepreneurship, vocation, risk, surrender, and what it means to build as a co-creator with God. Silas is the founder of Earth Search, a recruitment consultancy serving clean technology companies, and the creator of Catholic Founders, a podcast and Substack exploring how faith shapes the work of founders and builders. Alongside Paul Kolker, Nick Bezner, and Jeff Schiefelbein, Silas reflects on the deeper purpose of business, the danger of chasing success for its own sake, and the invitation to discern the specific track God has laid out for each person.<...

Joe Masek is back with the BeatiDudes for a powerful and deeply personal conversation about suffering, fatherhood, faith, and the mystery of learning to accept what cannot be controlled. Joe shares the story of his son Isaiah’s brain tumor diagnosis, the surgeries, hospital stays, radiation, chemotherapy, and the emotional aftermath of walking through a traumatic season as a husband and father. What begins with humor, including the unexpected origin story of “DJ Lemon Head,” quickly becomes a moving testimony about how suffering can become a place of communion, surrender, and transformation.

Joe reflects on how the tools...

Joe Masek joins the BeatiDudes for a raw, funny, and surprisingly practical conversation about one of the most common and least honestly discussed struggles in men’s lives. Joe shares the story behind The Freedom Group, the ministry he launched after years of personal battle and a breakthrough that came when he began applying neuroscience, habit formation, and real accompaniment to the problem of pornography. What follows is not a surface-level conversation about “doing better,” but a much deeper look at how men actually change, how the brain gets hijacked, and why freedom requires more than guilt, isolation, or willpo...

Luca Zocche is back with the BeatiDudes for a more personal and vulnerable conversation about suffering, bullying, identity, and the quiet way God can work through prayer and unexpected intervention. Joined by Paul Kolker, Nick Bezner, and Jeff Schiefelbein, Luca shares the painful story of struggling in school, enduring years of bullying, and reaching a point where his future felt uncertain. Then, through his father’s prayers and a providential connection, everything changed when he transferred to a new school and began to flourish.

What makes this episode stand out is the honesty around how deeply environment sh...

Luca Zocche is with the BeatiDudes for a funny, fast-moving, and surprisingly rich conversation about faith, entrepreneurship, failure, and purpose. Alongside Paul Kolker, Nick Bezner, and Jeff Schiefelbein, Luca shares how his New York-based Catholic entrepreneurship series, Fides Entrepreneurship, grew from small gatherings in his apartment into sold-out events that bring together young professionals hungry for deeper meaning in their work and lives.

The episode moves from hilarious stories about Luca’s subway injury, startup swings, and aviation journalism background to something much deeper: what happens when young people stop chasing status alone and start seeking vocation, sa...

Dr. Gregory Popcak is back with the BeatiDudes for a conversation that is equal parts heartfelt, surprising, and hilarious. As he shares stories from nearly 37 years of marriage, raising a faithful family, and building a life of ministry alongside his wife, Dr. Popcak opens up about family prayer, discernment, adoption, and the beauty of pursuing God’s plan together. Along the way, Paul Kolker, Nick Bezner, and Jeff Schiefelbein help uncover a story full of depth, joy, and more unexpected twists than anyone could have seen coming.

This episode moves from the deeply moving story of adopting th...

Dr. Gregory Popcak joins the BeatiDudes for a rich, practical conversation on marriage, parenting, counseling, and the call to bring the Catholic faith to life in the home. Along the way, Dr. Popcak shares how decades of radio, counseling, and writing with his wife, Lisa, have helped families apply the theology of the body to everyday life, especially in parenting, relationships, and emotional health. He also reflects on how Catholic parenting must be about more than producing well-behaved kids. It must help children encounter love, virtue, and the warmth of faith inside the home itself.

Dr. Popcak...

Fr. Luke Rawicki is back with The BeatiDudes for a funny, thoughtful, and surprisingly hopeful conversation about working with young people in today’s world. Along the way, Paul Kolker, Nick Bezner, and Jeff Schiefelbein explore what Fr. Luke has learned from serving high school students, why so many teens are more open to faith than adults assume, and how real human connection still breaks through in a distracted culture.

The conversation centers on the challenge and opportunity of ministering to the next generation. Fr. Luke shares how students often respond deeply when they are given authentic at...

Guest Fr. Luke Rawicki joins the BeatiDudes for a lively and deeply encouraging conversation about vocation, family, discernment, and the surprising ways God moves through ordinary moments. Along the way, Fr. Luke shares stories from his tight-knit family, his path through Texas A&M, and the joy of now serving young people as a priest. Paul Kolker, Nick Bezner, and Jeff Schiefelbein bring the usual energy, humor, and heart as they explore how God often uses relationships, community, and even unexpected conversations to redirect a life.

At the center of the episode is Fr...

The BeatiDudes welcome John Bishop for a conversation that is equal parts hilarious, thoughtful, and deeply moving. Along the way, John shares the remarkable story of returning home to Iowa, founding Forge, and witnessing what feels like a small miracle through his father's faithful determination. With Paul Kolker, Nick Bezner, and Jeff Schiefelbein bringing their usual mix of humor and heart, the episode moves from dinner plans and on-air phone calls to a rich reflection on family, vocation, and the kind of fatherhood that leaves a lasting mark.

John also opens up about his...

John Bishop joins the BeatiDudes for a rich and hilarious conversation on masculinity, fatherhood, formation, and the urgent need for men to step into their God-given mission. Alongside Paul Kolker, Nick Bezner, and Jeff Schiefelbein, John shares his journey from Iowa to seminary, Baylor, Catholic University, and FOCUS, eventually leading to his doctoral work on John Paul II’s thought and the development of what he calls a more complete vision of the “masculine genius.”

From there, the conversation turns toward John’s current work through Forge, a ministry focused on building small groups of fathers and helping...

In this BeatiDudes bonus, Edmundo Reyes shares a powerful and personal reflection on healing, identity, and what it means to let God meet us in our deepest wounds. What begins as a conversation about transition and pressure becomes a much richer discussion about rejection, surrender, and the slow work of grace in a man’s life. Along the way, Edmundo opens up about the role of prayer, daily Mass, therapy, spiritual direction, and brotherhood in his journey toward greater freedom.

Paul Kolker, Nick Bezner, and Jeff Schiefelbein help draw out a moving reminder that healing does not al...

Edmundo Reyes joins the BeatiDudes for a rich and energizing conversation that starts with authentic fraternity at the Tiny Table and quickly moves into the deeper story of Edmundo’s life and mission. Edmundo shares his powerful conversion story, describing how a retreat at age 17 changed everything by forcing him to ask a life-altering question: What if all of this is true?

From that moment on, faith stopped being cultural background noise and became the animating purpose of his life. He reflects on growing up in Mexico, discovering that the Gospel is not just something to study bu...

In this powerful Bonus episode of The BeatiDudes, Andrés Villaseñor Urrea returns to the Tiny Table to share a wild and deeply moving story of conversion, pride, surrender, and miraculous healing. What begins as a story about youthful rebellion, heartbreak, and ego turns into an unforgettable account of leaving college behind to join a missionary community in the Andes of Peru. Andrés opens up about woundedness, friendship, the hunger to be known, and the humbling spiritual formation that came not through platform or applause, but through silence, service, a broom, a mop, and the hidden life of...

Andrés Villaseñor Urrea joins the BeatiDudes for a powerful, hilarious, and deeply faith-filled conversation about Fearless Masculinity, the apostolate he founded to help men rediscover their identity in Jesus Christ. Andrés shares how a simple encounter with Wild at Heart sparked a calling that eventually became a retreat movement reaching nearly 1,500 men across Mexico, Dallas, and New York City. Along the way, he shares about living in multiple countries, building retreats with spiritual, psychological, and philosophical depth, and learning that true fearlessness is not the absence of fear, but acting with courage in the middle of it...

Chris Vander Woude returns for a BeatiDudes bonus after a powerful Monday episode to further explore the importance of family, fatherhood, brotherhood, and the life-changing witness of people with special needs.

Chris shares what it was like growing up with his brother Joseph and reflects on the example of a father who refused to place artificial limits on him. The Dudes explore how encounters with people with special needs can reshape the heart, teach patience, reveal child-like trust, and call all of us to love with greater dignity and attentiveness.

Chris Vander Woude joins the BeatiDudes for one of the most moving conversations in show history, sharing the extraordinary witness of his father, Tom Vander Woude.

In this episode, Chris opens up about growing up on a Virginia farm in a family of seven boys, the ordinary holiness of a quiet father, and the daily habits that formed a truly heroic man. From family rosaries on tired knees to long days of work, sports, sacrifice, and steadfast fatherhood, Chris paints the picture of a man whose life was marked by quiet faithfulness. Along the way, the conversation...

Marcel LeJeune returns to the Tiny Table for a powerful and funny Friday follow-up that turns practical evangelization into a real challenge for everyday Catholic men. Building on Monday’s conversation, Marcel shares stories from Texas A&M, his years leading campus ministry, and the conviction that the Church does not exist for herself but for those who do not yet know Jesus Christ. He unpacks what it means to form apostles, not just disciples, and why spiritual dissatisfaction can actually be a grace when it pushes us to care more deeply about the souls right in front of us...

Marcel LeJeune, President and Founder of Catholic Missionary Disciples, joins the BeatiDudes, starting with peak brotherhood banter and then swinging into a seriously helpful conversation about parish renewal, evangelization, and what it actually takes to change culture.

Marcel shares why “fruitfulness is named before it’s numbered,” why the Church cannot rely on packaged programs to fix deep problems, and why the “human” and “pastoral” gaps in formation often leave priests and parish leaders under-skilled for the real world of listening, discipling, and leading. Along the way, Paul Kolker, Nick Bezner, and Jeff Schiefelbein challenge the temptation toward mediocr...

Ryan Foley joins the BeatiDudes for a powerful and honest conversation about suffering, parenting, shame, mercy, and healing across generations. The conversation lands on a deeply relatable truth: so much of our pain gets worse when we avoid it, but when we bring it to the Lord and embrace the cross with Him, the burden becomes lighter.

Along with Paul Kolker, Nick Bezner, and Jeff Schiefelbein, Ryan digs into the cycle of woundedness passed through families, with a compassionate look at parenting and the reality that most people are doing the best they can with what they...

Ryan Foley from His Way At Work joins the BeatiDudes to talk about a bold, practical vision for Catholic business leadership: consecrating your company to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and then actually living it out. Paul Kolker, Nick Bezner, and Jeff Schiefelbein unpack Ryan’s journey from military service to a decade at Covenant Eyes, and how a retreat with business owners became the bridge into helping companies stop compartmentalizing faith and start placing Christ at the center of workplace culture.

This episode gets concrete fast. Ryan explains why consecration is not a one-and-done box to ch...

Johnny Brask, co-founder of Verso Jobs, is back at the Tiny Table with the BeatiDudes for a wildly honest, surprisingly tender conversation about reversion, repentance, and the strange way God uses real-life friendships to lead us home.

Paul Kolker, Nick Bezner, and Jeff Schiefelbein dig into Johnny’s story that includes a literal “shed life” chapter, a faith detour through evangelical circles, and a growing hunger for something painfully simple and real: confession and the Eucharist.

Johnny shares how his dad’s sobriety through the 12 steps became a turning point in his own spiritual awakening, and how...