Category: Dad

Lead Parenting Expert: Why 90% of Kids Leave The Faith (w/ Dr. Greg Popcak)

May 6, 2026
This stat should shake every Catholic father awake: 85 to 90 percent of kids raised in Catholic homes will leave the faith by adulthood. We've somehow accepted that as normal. It's not. In this episode, I sit down with Dr. Greg Popcak, a Catholic counselor with over 30 years in the trenches and author of more than 20 books, to talk about what the families who beat those odds are actually doing differently. Greg walks me through the 12 research-validated habits that families who successfully pass on the faith all share in common, what he calls the Liturgy of Domestic Church Life. We get into why just dragging your kids to Mass and white-knuckling the family Rosary isn't enough if there's no joy behind it, why your kids need to experience the Faith as the source of the meaning in your home and not just the source of the rules. He breaks down what headship actually looks like when it's modeled after the ministerial priesthood rather than a dictator, and he tells a story from his time in Hong Kong about a father who tried to hug his daughter for the first time and she didn't even know what he was doing.

How to Stop Fighting with Your Wife

July 23, 2025
What if the biggest threat to your family isn’t outside your home? John Heinen sits down with Andrew Laubacher, musician, speaker, and Executive Director of Humanality, to expose how your smartphone has been reshaping your attention, your memory, and your children’s brains. With billions of dollars behind it, Big Tech wasn’t designed to serve you and your family. It was built to capture your time, shape your habits, and replace real relationships with curated digital ones. In addition to helping you protect your family from these devices, we also discuss how to protect them from your own temptations (distraction, pornography, passivity, and escape). What do you do when every conversation with your wife seems to go sideways, even when you're trying to do the right thing? John Heinen and Devin Schadt sit down to expose the hidden habits that slowly destroy communication within marriages. With spiritual clarity and lived experience, they unpack how small patterns, like avoidance, assumptions, or rushed “fixes/hacks", can consistently unravel trust between husband and wife. Instead of playing defense, this episode shows men 5 ways to take responsibility for the tone, clarity, and direction of the most important conversations in their home. Because a Catholic husband doesn’t just talk, he leads. And that starts with the next conversation.

How We Lost Control of the Family

July 16, 2025
What if the biggest threat to your family isn’t outside your home? John Heinen sits down with Andrew Laubacher, musician, speaker, and Executive Director of Humanality, to expose how your smartphone has been reshaping your attention, your memory, and your children’s brains. With billions of dollars behind it, Big Tech wasn’t designed to serve you and your family. It was built to capture your time, shape your habits, and replace real relationships with curated digital ones. In addition to helping you protect your family from these devices, we also discuss how to protect them from your own temptations (distraction, pornography, passivity, and escape). Instead of giving in, Andrew offers a path to reclaim attention, rebuild you and your home’s culture, and start living again. From flip phones and dopamine detoxes to tech-free dinners and digital plans of life, this episode challenges every man to lead his family out of this trap and into reality.

The Hidden Secret to Keeping Your Kids Catholic

July 9, 2025
Why are 85% of Catholic children walking away from the Faith, even after years of weekly Mass, sacraments, and for many, Catholic school and youth group? John Heinen sits down with Devin Schadt to expose what parents today have been missing and why the solution is found inside the home. With wisdom drawn from recent studies, Church teaching, and personal experience, they reveal the one secret that thriving Catholic families have that others miss entirely. These families do not have children leaving the Faith when they go off to college, and actually, the reverse is happening. Instead of just doing more religious practices, this episode invites men to build something deeper: a Catholic family culture rooted in warmth, tenderness, and order. Devin and John break down how your family’s core values, a family personality, and devotional life can become the shield that protects your children from spiritual collapse. And they share practical steps, beginning with one conversation with your wife that needs to happen immediately. What happens when your wife begins to pull away, and you can't figure out why? What's more is that everything you do to help fix the situation seems to fall short. John Heinen and Devin Schadt discuss the hidden physical, spiritual, and emotional forces that quietly fracture Catholic marriages. Drawing on Scripture, theology, and hard-won experience, they reveal how isolation, resentment, and the demons can slowly unravel trust and intimacy. Instead of ignoring the drift, they unpack five subtle dynamics that sabotage unity and show how to reclaim authentic headship rooted in sacrifice, courage, and clarity. If you’ve felt the distance and wondered how to bridge it, this conversation will equip you to lead with confidence and rediscover the peace, trust, and communion God intends for your marriage.

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The Devil is a Dad Too

July 9, 2025
Did you know Jesus once called the Devil a father? What the Devil introduced in Eden was an alternative view of fatherhood. Let's consider the fact of an “alternative fatherhood” that Satan could use.

Saints Are Made Around the Dinner Table

June 25, 2025
What if the most important spiritual formation in your child’s life isn’t happening at church—but at your dinner table? Today, John Heinen and Devin Schadt discuss how family dinner has quietly lost its soul—and how fathers must bring it back, not just as a routine, but as a call and obligation. The culture has shaped the dinner table into what we commonly see today on TV. It is failing at its core mission to be a cornerstone of a thriving family. This isn’t about Pinterest-perfect meals or polite conversation. It’s about forming identity, memory, and virtue in the chaos of real life. John and Devin share how their own families bring structure and meaning to mealtime—from the nightly “Good Thing, Difficult Thing, Random Thing” ritual to coaching kids through cleanup as a form of love and responsibility.

The Wound You Regret Most: How Fathers Begin to Heal

June 18, 2025
What happens when the child you love won’t speak to you anymore? When the hurt runs deep—and it’s your fault? John Heinen and Devin Schadt go deep into one of the hardest realities a Catholic father can face: seeking forgiveness from a child who’s been wounded by your failure. Drawing from personal experience, they walk through the steps of Recognize, Repair, and Rebuild—offering practical and spiritual insight for men who want to restore trust without forcing the outcome. This truth works for children from 18 months to adulthood. This isn’t a quick fix. It’s a call to live with humility, pursue the heart of your child, and become the kind of father they can one day forgive—even if they never say the words.

A Checklist for Catholic Dads

May 28, 2025
The role of being a Father is a tall calling that all men have to step into. It is easy to fall into the motions and to be unintentional as a Father. Here is a checklist of 7 keys to being a great father and husband. Keeping these in mind will help your family prosper.

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