HeightsCast: Forming Men Fully Alive

Clare Morell on A Humane Way of Life: The Research Behind Home Tech Decisions

30 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

A rapid rollout of integrated AI into technology we use everyday brings with it new considerations for our tech policies at home. At this year's Heigh...

Robert Greving on an Apostolate of Courtesy: Social Graces and Civilization

23 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Saving civilization well may begin with eye contact, a tucked shirt, a sincere apology, or a held door. For the dispositions we have toward the little...

Dr. Matthew Spalding on Teaching the American Founding after 250 Years

16 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

How have we allowed such a daring story as the American founding to become so flat? A history lesson so simple, tidy, and inevitable that it can be co...

Colin Gleason on "Tell me the truth!" Leading Boys to Integrity

09 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Why tell the truth when it doesn't always pay? It's important to let boys encounter this question through example, literature, and enough freedom to w...

Dave Maxham on Automaticity: Where 'Rote' Fits into the Liberal Arts

26 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Could creativity and intellectual freedom actually depend on the rote? Following up on his recent article for the Forum, math teacher Dave Maxham di...

Andrew Reed on Parenting through the Middle School Doldrums

19 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

What do our children need most from us in the unsteady years of middle school? First, says Head of Middle School Andy Reed, they need our availabil...

Andrew Cantarutti on Classroom Habits of Attention in the Age of AI

12 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Today, we have an increasing store of research to evaluate the claims of educational tech. Where does it assist or upend our goals as a school? Where ...

Tom Steenson on the Teacher's Voice

05 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Volume, pitch, pace, tone, inflection: the human voice is our primary teaching instrument. The spoken word has not just a logos and an ethos but a...

Alvaro de Vicente on the Role of Parents in the Conspiracy for the Good

26 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

When we join a school community, it should be to join forces with teachers, administrators, and other families in the "conspiracy for the good" of our...

Dr. Stephen Smith on Educating Leaders with Thomas More

19 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Does a talented person have a duty to serve others? What do leading citizens really need to live well, freely, impactfully—even greatly? How do we, ...

Bill Dardis on Teaching Religion with Multiple Faiths in the Room

12 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

"Charity and clarity" are the lodestars when teaching middle school boys with various faith backgrounds—and who are developing faith dispositions of...

Arthur Brooks on Your Calling and How to Find It

05 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

The crisis of meaning among young people gets a lot of press; but a quieter crisis of calling afflicts every generation today. Dr. Arthur Brooks says ...

Kevin Twomey on Frantic Families: Three Questions for a More Intentional Life

23 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Kevin Twomey is a husband, father, and a principal consultant at Table Group, which specializes in helping executive teams build a work culture that f...

Colin Gleason on the Father as Protector

15 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

The first images of a "protector" that flash through our minds might be the warrior, the superhero, the movie star physically holding back evil from i...

Tom Cox on an Epic Education: Tolkien in the Middle School

08 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

To prepare for Homer, Virgil, Beowulf, the Eddas, and Dante—The Heights begins with Tolkien. In a talk from 2016, former middle school core teacher ...

Michael Moynihan on the Father as a Guide to the World

18 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

From utero and into infancy, babies recognize their mother as being essentially one with them. So, being placed in their father's arms is in fact thei...

Fr. Thomas Joseph White on Reading into Reality: What Is Intellectual Formation?

11 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Our mission is to assist parents in the intellectual, moral, physical, and spiritual formation of their sons… At The Heights, we repeat these word...

Fr. Carter Griffin and Alvaro de Vicente on Learning to Throw Your Life Away!: Processes of Discernment

05 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

"Whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it" (Matt. 16:25). This week we're joined by Fr. Carte...

Colin Gleason on Manners: The "ABCs" of Virtue

20 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Please, thank you, after you… Do manners matter? Are they artifice or virtue? In this rebroadcast from 2019, lower school head Colin Gleason shar...

Dan Lively on Formation for the Body: Lifelong Functional Fitness

12 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In our school communities, we talk a great deal about moral and intellectual formation. But physical development, too, has an essential place in the ...

Dr. Jason Baxter on Why Beauty Matters: The Postmodern Pressure on Our Interior Life

06 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

One philosopher of our time claims that "today, the experience of beauty is impossible." Dr. Jason Baxter, director of the Center for Beauty and Cultu...

Tom Cox on Being a Faculty of Friends: Making Schools into Communities

30 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The joy of "being known here" is not just for the students. When a faculty cultivates friendship, it benefits the entire school community. Tom Cox has...

Dr. Melissa Moschella on Parental Rights in Natural and Constitutional Law

23 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

What are parental rights? Are they a legal stance—or a philosophical one? In today's conversation, Dr. Melissa Moschella of the University of Notre ...

Michael Moynihan on A Whole Education: Teaching Persons, Not Just Subjects

16 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

There should be no contradiction in pursuing hard sciences, humanities, and moral virtue all in one day. For upper schoolers switching classrooms ever...

Alvaro de Vicente on Parental Expectations: Being Both Perfect and Anxious for Nothing

09 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

"Be perfect" (Matt. 5:48) and "anxious for nothing" (Phil 4:6). This tall order from the New Testament may put modern parents into a cold sweat. Pa...

Alvaro de Vicente on Conversation: The Medium of Mentoring

03 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The art of mentoring is not just for teachers and coaches, but also parents—who can never really be out of mentoring mode. In a recent Substack arti...

Kyle Blackmer on Building Parent-Teacher Rapport

25 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In the broader society, mistrust increasingly defines the parent-teacher relationship. But it doesn't have to be this way. As a Heights parent and sev...

Fr. John Nepil on Theology at Elevation

18 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

"One of the best places to cultivate a Catholic worldview in the hearts and minds of young people … is in the backcountry," writes Fr. John Nepil in...

Andrew Reed on Developing Your Son's Will

11 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

How many times a day do I tell my son what to do next? In this rebroadcast from 2015, our Head of Middle School Andrew Reed offers his ideas on culti...

Michael Moynihan and Austin Hatch on Teaching the History of our Strange New World

04 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

To help our seniors synthesize the many ideas, events, and texts they've surveyed across high school—and to help them better understand their own c...

Dr. Matthew Mehan on Imagination: The Raw Material for Thinking

21 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Properly understood, the imagination is not something you escape to; it's something you draw upon every day to make decisions, understand events, and...

Colin Gleason on Discipline: Giving Room for Good Things

07 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

"… the more I found that while it had established a rule and order, the chief aim of that order was to give room for good things to run wild." G...

Chris Vander Woude on Ordinary and Heroic Virtue

24 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In 2008, Tom Vander Woude died saving the life of his youngest son. But this radical self-gift was really the culmination of a quiet life of daily vi...

Alvaro de Vicente on Enjoying Our Children and Why It's Important

10 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

They know we love them; but do our children sense that we like them? And how does that relate to their formation? In the intense season of togetherne...

Dr. Joseph Lazilotti on the Sex Difference in Education

26 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Months ago, Heights teacher Joe Lanzilotti took up a prodigious project: reviewing the body of popular literature on boys' education. Partway through ...

Clare Morell on the Tech Exit: How Smartphones Undermine Our Parenting—and How to Reverse Course

12 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The ever-changing tech landscape and the ever-growing research on interactive screens means that the topic must come up anew year after year. For par...

Dr. Matthew Tapie and Dr. Lionel Yaceczko on Parental Authority and Thomas Aquinas

05 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In 1858, six-year-old Edgardo Mortara is forcibly removed from his family's home in accordance with civil and canon law. His Jewish family's legal ap...

Christopher Scalia on Finding Your Next Novel

29 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In a world competing for our attention, our guest this week admits: "It's probably harder to read novels now than it ever was." But their value cannot...

Joe Cardenas on A Change of Soul: Reimagining the Purpose of Vacation

22 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

As we conclude the school year, parents are turning their sights to summer and the much-anticipated family vacation. We bear such hope for rest and co...

Alvaro de Vicente on Choosing a College—Or Not

15 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

As more families scrutinize their post-high school options for virtue and value, the field has perhaps never been wider. Choosing a path carefully, wi...

Fr. Gregory Pine on Human Reason: An Attentiveness to Reality

08 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Human reason: what is it? How does it cooperate with faith and the will? How can we distinguish between authentic reason and its counterfeits—parti...

Colin Gleason on Teaching Our Sons to Pray: Opportunities and Options

01 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Prayer is not prescriptive. So how could we hope to teach our children a practice that St. Thérèse called "a surge of the heart"? Lower school head...

Alvaro de Vicente on Reframing Our Desire to Be Liked

17 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

We often speak of a pedagogical friendship between teacher and student: the earnest desire for the student's good, the collaborative adventure throug...

Tom Royals on Offering It Up: A Lenten Reflection

10 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

"Offer it up!" Do we receive that invitation with a wince or a nod? Heights Assistant Headmaster Tom Royals invites us to examine our approach to Lent...

Tom Steenson's Parent-Teacher Conference for the Everyman

03 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

As a Valley veteran, Tom Steenson has seen patterns emerge from his two decades of parent-teacher conferences. He invites us to sit down for a not-so-...

Adam Taylor on Boys' Education and the 'Medieval Model'

27 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

"Are you a classical school?" It's a question many parents and educators will have to answer at some point. St. Martin's Academy in Fort Scott, Kansas...

Fr. Carter Griffin on Forming Families, Forming Saints

20 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Pope St. John Paul II outlined the four pillars of formation for seminarians back in 1992 with his apostolic exhortation Pastores dabo vobis. For yea...

Austin Hatch on Adler's Modes of Teaching

13 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

A great learning experience comes at the material using different practices—listening, reading, memorizing, interrogating, doing, speaking, and/or w...

Tom Cox on Telling a Great Story in History Class

06 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Mr. Tom Cox's approach to telling great stories in the classroom starts with a self-limiting 3×5 notecard. The challenge when telling any story from...

Alvaro de Vicente on Dumb Phones, Feature Phones, and the New Tech Landscape

27 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

If we've decided against smart phones for our kids, can dumb phones come to the rescue? New options for families have hit the tech market, offering f...

Dr. Benjamin Storey on American Restlessness

20 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

"It is an atmosphere we breathe in, rather than an argument we consider." Thus wrote T. S. Eliot about the very idea of happiness Americans have adopt...

John Cuddeback on Teaching Men

13 Feb 2025

Contributed by Lukas

At our 2024 Teaching Conference, Dr. John Cuddeback of Christendom College unpacked what boys need from their fathers and teachers in order to grow in...

Colin Gleason on Listening to Our Boys

30 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

It's true: we talk too much. And we know that just one more brilliant lecture from us will not solve our boys' every problem—but we can't seem to h...

Jimmy Callahan on the Man Your History Class Is Missing

23 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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 fro...

Dr. Peter Kilpatrick on the Idea of a Catholic University

16 Jan 2025

Contributed by Lukas

All the first universities were—St. Thomas Aquinas would tell us—Catholic ones. But in this modern day, it takes intentionality to maintain the ri...

Joe Cardenas and Nate Gadiano on Living Simplicity

20 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Advent invites us to reflect on our Christian disposition, oriented towards peace, hope, joy, and love. St. Josemaría Escrivá was known to summariz...

Jason Baxter on Loving Modernity as a Medievalist

12 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

"The air of Narnia had been working upon him … and all his old battles came back to him, and his arms and fingers remembered their old skill. He was...

Colin Gleason on Unanxious Leadership

03 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode we feature a lecture from Heights Lower School Head, Colin Gleason, at the last Art of Teaching conference. In the talk, Colin explo...

Joe Breslin on What Fiction Is For

21 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

How do we justify reading? Do we justify reading? Heights fifth grade teacher and published fiction author Joe Breslin chases away such questions. Th...

Dale Ahlquist on G. K. Chesterton

14 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

A surprising number of Catholic conversions in the last hundred years begin with one man: G. K. Chesterton. A modern Catholic favorite, Chesterton loo...

Alvaro de Vicente on the Vocation of Fatherhood

07 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The task of fatherhood is critical, dynamic—and daunting. How could one address hope to address it all? During the Fatherhood Conference at The Heig...

Dr. George Harne on Receiving Beauty

31 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

What is beauty? Is it definable? What is it for, how are we drawn to it—and why do we sometimes resist it? This week we welcome Dr. George Harne, pr...

Dr. Jeremy Beer on Charitable Giving and the Quest for Belonging

24 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Dr. Jeremy Beer's study of American society over the last 200 years, overlaid with psychology research and statistics about American charitable giving...

Dr. Andrew Abela on Superhabits

17 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

It turns out that modern psychology, neuroscience research, "habit hacks," and popular self-help literature can all be summed up in one very classical...

Alvaro de Vicente on Forming Loyal Men in a Culture of Sentimentalism

10 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The sentimentalism of our greater culture is a formidable—yet surmountable—challenge to young men. Our sons are relentlessly encouraged to follow ...

Bishop Erik Varden on Man and Masculinity

03 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Last weekend, The Wall Street Journal published a front-page story on American young men and the crisis of masculinity. It featured hard stories of ...

Keeping the Good In: The Voices Our Sons Hear

26 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

It is funny how mortals always picture us as putting things into their minds: in reality our best work is done by keeping things out. So writes the ...

The Virtue of Studiousness

19 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Part of the Teaching Sovereign Knowers Collection In recent years, a number of HeightsCast guests have touched on the same resounding theme: the moder...

On Teaching Love

12 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The vision of "man fully alive" involves a man motivated by faith, hope, and love. And the greatest of these, St. Paul tells us, is love. Our guest t...

The Ritual of Reading in the Classroom

05 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In classrooms where the students can read for themselves, reading aloud often falls off the daily schedule. But it's a ritual well worth keeping—fo...

Restoring the Lord's Day

29 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

As we embark on a new school year, we are full of resolutions for the family routine. How will we order our week to support the highest goods? How wil...

Advice for the College Launch

22 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

"Picture yourself here." "Become all you can be." "This will be the best four years of your life." The college pitch to high school seniors is alluri...

The Formation of a Teacher

12 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Charlotte Mason's simple framework for a teacher calls him a "guide, philosopher, and friend." It's a lovely image—but what does that practical appl...

Forming Others: What Mentoring Can and Can't Be

27 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In his address to the Forum's Mentoring Workshop held in June, our Head of Lower School Colin Gleason helpfully reframed just what mentoring is—and...

Anthropological Foundations of Mentoring

20 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In June, the Forum hosted a Mentoring Workshop for men across the country (and beyond) to consider the whys and hows of mentoring young boys into you...

On Home as Social Hub: The Importance of Hosting Our Sons and Their Friends

13 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

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 fo...

Dangerously Good: Forming Great Souls

07 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Where to begin with the lofty, almost nebulous virtue of magnanimity—what St. Thomas Aquinas called "stretching forth of the soul to great things"? ...

Is His Free Time Freeing?

31 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The modern instinct with free time is to fill it. Whether in our own lives or in the lives of our children, we imagine that something productive or m...

Dr. Peter Kilpatrick of CUA: Considerations for College-Bound Students

24 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Today we talk to Dr. Peter Kilpatrick, President of The Catholic University of America, who offers our graduates advice about how to make the most of ...

Alvaro de Vicente on Freedom and Obedience

17 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

"Porque me da la gana!" In his book Friends of God, St. Josemaría writes, "I opt for God because I want to, freely, without compulsion of any kind." ...

Dr. Kevin Majeres on Anxious Generation and Bad Therapy

03 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode Dr. Kevin Majeres offers his thoughts on two recent books: Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt, and Bad Therapy by Abigail Shrier. ...

Immersive Language Instruction: On the Polis Method

25 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

This episode explores the theory and the practice of the Polis Method of language instruction which relies on a variety of methods to offer students a...

Fr. Carter Griffin: Magnanimity and the Great Souled Man

19 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

This week we feature a lecture by Fr. Carter Griffin, rector of the Saint John Paul II Seminary in Washington, D.C., to Heights Fathers on magnanimity...

Michael Moynihan on Freedom in Education

11 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In this week's episode, Mr. Michael Moynihan discusses freedom in education. Michael traces the development of our philosophical understanding of free...

Alexandre Havard on Free Hearts and Magnanimity

25 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

This week's episode features Mr. Alexander Havard, an internationally recognized authority on leadership and virtue. Mr. Havard gives us, as parents ...

Chris McKenna on Parenting in a Digital Age

11 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

This week's episode features Chris McKenna, founder and CEO of Protect Young Eyes (ProtectYoungEyes.com), who discusses the challenges and opportuniti...

R. J. Snell on Hope and Despair

29 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

For many people today, avoiding existential despair is like shoveling water from a damaged ship: the effort, no matter how valiant, is ultimately futi...

Teaching Sovereign Knowers

20 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

This week we feature a lecture offered by Head of Upper School, Michael Moynihan, at the most recent Teaching Vocation Conference. In his presentatio...

The College Experience with UD President Jonathan Sanford

12 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Many of us assume that college will inevitably follow on high school's heels, but why? Why go to college, and, once there, how do we make the most of ...

On Emotional Presence and Imperfect Parenting

01 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Headmaster Alvaro de Vicente discusses the importance of "imperfect parenting.'  Ours is an age of external perfection, but when our son's fail to ac...

Teaching and the Vocation to Fatherhood

18 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

While most professions work on an object which is ultimately transient—a doctor, for example, works to heal the body which will ultimately die, an e...

Rhetoric: On Forming Soul-Leaders

20 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Dr. Scott Crider of the University of Dallas introduces us to Rhetoric, an art of persuasion that allows our future leaders to lead souls (and themsel...

On Grades: A Teacher's Perspective

11 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In a HeightsCast episode released in September, headmaster Alvaro de Vicente offered guidance for parents on how to understand, interpret, and respon...

Teaching Craftsmanship: On Skills and Boys' Hands

01 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The book of Genesis tells us that God made man ut operaretur—that he may work. Far from a punishment for the Fall, work is an essential part of man'...

Technology and Trust: On Building the Relationship

16 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

"I'm a big believer in boredom…. All the [technology] stuff is wonderful, but having nothing to do can be wonderful, too." Thought-provoking words f...

Teaching Logic: On Forming the Reasonable Person

06 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

"Man He made to serve Him wittily," said Thomas More in Robert Bolt's A Man for All Seasons, "in the tangle of his mind." To serve God wittily req...

The Mission and Vision of The Heights

27 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This episode of HeightsCast features our Headmaster's Open House presentation, in which he shares our vision of education, along with the specific mis...

Friendship and the 21st Century Boy

20 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The real problem for many today is not ADD; it is, rather, what Headmaster Alvaro de Vicente refers to as IDD: intimacy deficit disorder. This problem...

Movement as Foundation of Fitness

10 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Man is by nature made for movement. As a social-rational animal, he is not meant to live an angelic existence; his flourishing is embodied and, even m...

AI and the Take-Home Essay

28 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

According to Aristotle (and Aquinas and others), the human person is essentially rational and social; man thinks, and he thinks best in the context of...