The Intentional Household: A LifeCraft Podcast
Episodes
Episode 53: Pleasures of the Body For Training in Chastity
17 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Send a textBodily pleasures are more important and chastity is more profound than we realize. Plato sagely noted that most people are inexperienced in...
Episode 52: Parenting Adult Children: Does the Work Ever End?
03 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Send a textWe most associate parenting with raising the young; but there is more to it. Parents have a key role for as long as they live, and the long...
Episode 51: Should Spouses Share the Spiritual Life?
17 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Send a textSpouses seek to share their lives in the deepest way possible. But the spiritual life—which should be at the very center of each person’...
Episode 50 - Winter: Slowing Down the Pace of Life
03 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textWe are animals, so seasons are a key feature of human life. But we often miss this. Winter is a clarion call to slow down and look insid...
Episode 49: New Year's Goals: A Philosophical Approach
20 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textAs temporal creatures, it is fitting for us to mark certain times for new beginnings. January is an excellent time for such intentionali...
Kindness: Discovering its Centrality
06 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
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Episode 47: Turning Christmas Blues to Gold
16 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textThe most wonderful time of the year is often also remarkably difficult for several reasons. John and Sofia discuss how we can face these...
Episode 46 - Joseph and the Hidden Life in our Homes
03 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textWhat both men and women do in the home is often very hidden. This can be strikingly beautiful and at times quite painful. John and Sofia...
Episode 45: Rethinking Christmas Gifts
18 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textGiving gifts is integral to how most of us celebrate Christmas, but discerning how to do it is challenging. John and Sofia discuss how a...
Episode 44 - The Role of Parents in Dating
04 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textOne of the most urgent of parental duties often does not get the attention it demands. Our children need our serious, principled, and co...
Episode 43 - How to Please your Wife: A Discussion
21 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textAll humor aside, a man has a daunting task in doing for his wife what the marriage relationship calls for. John and Sofia read excerpts ...
Episode 42 - Addressing the Crisis of Responsibility
07 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textWe all notice it but often feel stumped at how to address it. The loss of responsibility is not random. Knowing its causes can go a long...
Episode 41 - 5 Tips for Eating Better Starting Today [with Nourishing Traditions]
23 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textEating well should be a major focus in the home; but it’s often hard to know where to start. John and Sofia share how Sally Fallon’s...
Episode 40 - Wake-up and Bedtime Rituals
09 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textBeginnings and endings are always important, and nowhere more than in daily life in the home. Simple routines can make all the differenc...
Episode 39 - Two Sides of Listening in Marriage
26 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textExperience shows that really listening to one another is at the heart of marriage. But it is so hard to achieve. John and Sofia frankly ...
Episode 38 - Forming the Imagination: At the Center of Homelife
12 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textGood philosophy makes clear: the power called ‘imagination’ has a dramatic while often unnoticed influence in our life. It is centra...
SPECIAL LIFECRAFT LECTURE: The Philosophy of Music and Dance: What We Need to Know
05 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textJohn’s lecture from LifeCraft Day at the Barn is a hard-hitting presentation of why music and dance matter, of the problems we face in...
Episode 37 - Beyond Parties: Hospitality as Essential to Household
29 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textHospitality is much more than just a nice way to spend time with people; in the loss of real hospitality households have suffered a seri...
Episode 36 - Educating our Children: Some Practical Principles
15 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textWhat to do for our children’s ‘education’ is one of the most important and difficult issues. This immediately demands some clear t...
Episode 35 - A Man's Part in Housework
01 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textAre dishes, laundry, and cleaning more of a woman’s work? Is it important for men to do such work in the home? If so, why? Join John a...
Episode 34 - The Manners Crisis, and What To Do About It
17 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textThe pervasive decline in manners leaves many wondering what can be done and what difference it makes. Join John and Sofia in considering...
Episode 33 - Making the Vacation your Family Needs
03 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textVacations have a significant role in making a household. With an intentional approach, grounded in a couple of key distinctions and prin...
Episode 32 - Tom Vander Woude: The Man Who Gave His Life For His Son
20 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textAn Interview with Chris Vander WoudeThe heroic death of Tom Vander Woude highlights the extraordinary beauty of his ‘ordinary’ life....
Episode 31 - What Happens to Children Raised to be Different?
06 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textWe know that how we raise our children will make them different from many of their peers, but often we don’t recognize just what this ...
Episode 30 - 5 Ways to Bring the Power of Great Music into Your Home
22 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textYou want to bring the power of great music to your home but don’t know where to begin. It can be daunting. Here are five concrete step...
Episode 29 - Celebrating Easter Like We Mean It
08 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textEaster is the feast of all feasts. It undergirds all true festivity and leisure. Yet we often struggle to celebrate it well. John and So...
Episode 28 - Walking for Recreation: A Path to Renewing Homelife
25 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textFinding truly enriching activities that are enjoyable and don’t require a lot of planning can be difficult. Walking—whether just aro...
Episode 27 - Interview with Fr. Gregory Pine: How Dad Can Be Spiritual Head in the Home
11 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textBeing spiritual leader is perhaps the most difficult, under-examined, and central aspect of a man’s place in the home. Renowned theolo...
Episode 26 - Movies in the Home: Challenge and Opportunity
25 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textAnyone living an intentional life needs to reflect on how to do movies right. This is especially crucial for parents in view of the chal...
Episode 25 - Making and Transcending Time in the Home
11 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textCentral to our problem with time is that we miss the real issue, and so real solutions evade us. It’s not about becoming more producti...
Episode 24 - Music in the Home: Trojan Horse or Genuine Gift?
28 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textBoethius wrote: "Music is part of us, and either ennobles or degrades our behavior.” Plato and Aristotle saw it as central in edu...
Episode 23 - Self-Care: Integral but Elusive in the Household
14 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textMany of us, especially spouses and parents, struggle with it. But self-care is crucial for everyone, and is an opportunity to deepen a m...
Episode 22 - The Power to Make Others Happy: Scrooge's Dance as a Feast for the Ages
31 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textWe have both the power and calling to make others happy, a truth portrayed in stunning fashion in A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, ...
Episode 21- Five Ideas for a Household Christmas
10 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textChristmas stands out as perhaps the most significant annual opportunity to craft a certain kind of life in our home. It’s when we show...
Episode 20 - Preparing your Home for Christmas: Decorating with a Purpose
03 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textIt’s about so much more than keeping up with the neighbors. Decorating our home at Christmas can be an essential part of a deeper prep...
Episode 19 - Singing in the Home: Is it Essential?
26 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textIt was once so ordinary that people couldn’t picture life without it. Singing together is a basic form of shared life in the home, and...
Episode 18 - Beyond Interior Design: Seeking a Better Plan for Our Home with Paige Rien
12 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textInterior design matters. Given our bodily nature, the spaces in our home have significant influence on life-in-the-home. Paige Rien, an ...
Episode 17 - Why Good Food Matters: Eating Healthy to Renew Homelife
29 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textWhat we eat is a major determinant of our bodily health and much more. The right approach to food nourishes us in many ways and is a cen...
SPECIAL EPISODE - Wifery: The Womanly Art and its Concrete Forms
25 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textWifery refers to something beautiful that every woman is called to be as well as to a very concrete art at the heart of life in the home...
Episode 16 - Finding a Better Way to Bury Our Dead
15 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textHow we bury our dead expresses our basic view of life. But we have lost our traditions of burial, and so our lives are impoverished. Ren...
Episode 15 - Why Personal Pursuits Still Matter as a Mother with Nell O'Leary
01 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textIf motherhood demands all, can there still be space for anything else? Does being a good mother mean having no personal projects? Nell O...
SPECIAL EPISODE - Husbandry: The Manly Art and its Concrete Forms
27 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textHusbandry names the heart of what every man is called to be; it also names a very concrete art that is the foundation of life in the hom...
Episode 14 - Authority and Submission: Is it Necessary in Marriage?
17 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textOne of the hardest things to understand is even harder to enact. Authority and submission are essential to marriage, and yet today we ha...
Episode 13 - Five Non-Negotiables to Instill in your Children
03 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textA very difficult part of intentional parenting is knowing what to focus on. Specific goals allow for more focused and fruitful labors. S...
Episode 12 - A Green Thumb: Why you DON'T Need One to Homestead
20 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textAll men and women can be stewards and have the joy of ‘taking care’ of things. It is written deep within our nature. No prior experi...
Episode 11: Optimizing the Role of Grandparents in Children's Lives
06 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textNow more than ever, our children need grandparents in their lives; indeed, it can make a profound difference. Are we doing all we can to...
Episode 10: What if my Spouse is not on the Same Page?
23 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textCrafting the good life together calls for a shared vision. But what if spouses disagree, or one spouse isn’t really engaged in the sam...
Episode 9: Household: What are we making together anyway?
09 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textWhat does a man really ‘propose’ in a marriage proposal? What is the project, if she accepts, that they set out on together? Our und...
Episode 8: Raising Children Who Make Good Decisions After They Leave Home
25 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textNothing is more important to parents, and nothing will demand more of us. Parents can’t assure that children will make good decisions,...
Episode 7: Feeling Overwhelmed? Strategies for attaining peace.
11 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textFeeling overwhelmed is common, especially in households today, so we need to have a strategy for addressing it, for our own sake and for...
Episode 6: Friendship in Marriage: Can it be what you had hoped it would be?
28 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textGetting married we assume we’ll have a great friendship. Yet often it doesn’t turn out as we hoped, or it seems harder than it shoul...
Episode 5: When and How to Talk to your Children about Chastity and Dating
14 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textThough we parents know it is our responsibility, things our children so need to hear from us—about chastity, dating, and marriage—ar...
Episode 4: Is Woman still Heart of the Home?
30 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textIs woman as heart of the home an outdated and misleading stereotype, or is it what we should be striving for? In a postmodern age, can o...
Episode 3: The Family Pig, Its place in our Home
16 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textOur annual pig slaughter addressed fundamental issues we didn’t even know we had. Indeed, it has become a kind of microcosm of the lif...
Episode 2: Sunday in the Home, A Practical Approach
02 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textWe want Sunday to be different in our home. But where do begin? There are so many forces working against our making Sunday what we know ...
The Intentional Household Trailer
07 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a textSave the Date! Join John and Sofia Cuddeback on March 19th, for the launch of "The Intentional Household," a LifeCraft Podca...
Episode 1: Is Homesteading for Everyone ?
05 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Send us a text"Should we homestead?" This burning question of our time reveals our deep need in an increasingly dis-connected society to re-...