Avoiding Babylon

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A jury room can’t fix a culture, but it can expose one. We wrestle with the Lindsay Clancy trial as closing arguments land and the internet picks its side, and we ask the uncomfortable question people keep dodging: what happens when “empathy” becomes a way to deny obvious evil? We talk through why verdict timing matters, why a hung jury is plausible, and why the details many viewers never saw still matter for truth, justice, and the victims who can’t speak.

Then we zoom out to the bigger machine that shapes public conscience. We dig into how stipulated facts can make a trial clearer for jurors but murkier for everyone watching, especially in true crime TikTok culture where missing context becomes conspiracy fuel. From there we connect the dots to modern storytelling: Disney villain redemption arcs, the habit of blaming the male love interest, and even Frozen’s “no right, no wrong” message as a window into how moral imagination gets trained over years, not moments.

We also get practical and personal about the pharmaceutical layer behind modern life. We discuss SSRIs, antidepressant side effects, withdrawal experiences, and why a society built on prescriptions feels brittle if the supply chain breaks. We touch Adderall and adult ADHD self-diagnosis, and we close with a real-world example of community boundaries through church discipline and family accountability.

Subscribe for more long-form cultural analysis, share this with a friend who can argue in good faith, and leave a review with your take: where do you draw the line between compassion and excuse?
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Get 10% off an amazing Black Monk Rosary by going to https://www.blackmonkrosaries.com/?ref=AVOIDINGBABYLON and using code AVOIDINGBABYLON at checkout!
Check out our sponsor, Nic Nac, at www.nicnac.com and use code "AB25%" for 25% off of your first order!
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A book so controversial the author half jokes he may have to “press publish” live just to see how long it survives. We’re joined again by Father James Mawdsley to talk about Know Thy Enemy, the personal cost of writing it, and why certain questions Catholics were told to stop asking keep forcing their way back into view.

We dig into how propaganda and education build the “frame” that decides what you’re allowed to notice. That takes us from post war narratives and Vatican era assumptions to today’s arguments about interfaith language, “Abrahamic” messaging, and what the Gospel actually says about spiritual fatherhood and spiritual adoption. Along the way, we connect the dots between ideas that sound religious and ideas that quietly replace religion.

From there we get into the culture side: Teilhard de Chardin, Fulton Sheen, and the lure of progress talk that treats borders, traditions, and inherited identity as problems to be dissolved. We also discuss evolution in Catholic schools as a faith breaking domino, and why a purely political “universal brotherhood” cannot do the job of the New Covenant.

The back half turns practical and personal: what to do when online accusations become a distraction campaign, how to stay charitable without going soft on truth, and why Father’s advice on mental health is blunt. He argues that regular confession, prayer, and real community often do more than therapy culture and pharmaceuticals for people trying to rebuild a stable interior life.

If you want more long form Catholic conversation on Vatican II debates, interfaith dialogue, propaganda, national sovereignty, Catholic anthropology, and confession as therapy, hit subscribe, share this with a friend, and leave a review so more people can find the show.
Support the show

Get 10% off an amazing Black Monk Rosary by going to https://www.blackmonkrosaries.com/?ref=AVOIDINGBABYLON and using code AVOIDINGBABYLON at checkout!
Check out our sponsor, Nic Nac, at www.nicnac.com and use code "AB25%" for 25% off of your first order!
Please subscribe! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKsxnv80ByFV4OGvt_kImjQ?sub_confirmation=1
https://www.avoidingbabylon.com
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Want to reach out to us? Want to leave a comment or review? Want to give us a suggestion or berate Anthony? Send us a text by clicking this link!
Nuclear weapons, IVF, AI, and the postwar story we’ve all been taught are not separate conversations, they’re one big argument about who (or what) shapes human history. We start with a raw look at how a “content drought” turns into algorithmic rage bait, especially around male-female dynamics and the true crime ecosystem. Then we pivot hard into a headline surrogate case that sounds heroic on the surface but feels, to us, like a glimpse into the contractual and moral nightmare built into modern surrogacy and IVF.

From there, we dig into Tucker Carlson’s claim that nuclear weapons weren’t truly “created by people.” We don’t treat it like a cheap shock line. We ask what it means to say technology can be influenced by demonic forces through pride, rebellion, and the pursuit of forbidden knowledge. That takes us into Oppenheimer, the Trinity test, the occult flavored edges of early rocketry, and why 1947 keeps showing up when people talk about UFOs, UAP phenomena, and the modern age of secrets.

We also read and react to JD Hall’s framing of Eric Metaxas and the postwar consensus as a kind of civil religion, where Allied victory becomes moral immunity and certain questions are treated as blasphemy. Along the way we preview upcoming shows, including our conversation with Father Maudsley (Know Thy Anime) and a planned 9-11 episode that separates memories of the day from the conspiracy theory rabbit holes.

If any of this hits a nerve, share the episode with a friend who actually likes hard conversations, then subscribe and leave a review so more people can find the show. What’s the one modern “official story” you no longer trust?
Support the show

Get 10% off an amazing Black Monk Rosary by going to https://www.blackmonkrosaries.com/?ref=AVOIDINGBABYLON and using code AVOIDINGBABYLON at checkout!
Check out our sponsor, Nic Nac, at www.nicnac.com and use code "AB25%" for 25% off of your first order!
Please subscribe! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKsxnv80ByFV4OGvt_kImjQ?sub_confirmation=1
https://www.avoidingbabylon.com
Merchandise: https://avoiding-babylon-shop.fourthwall.com
Locals Community: https://avoidingbabylon.locals.com
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Want to reach out to us? Want to leave a comment or review? Want to give us a suggestion or berate Anthony? Send us a text by clicking this link!
A mother kills three children and the internet immediately starts bargaining with reality. We dig into the Lindsay Clancy trial, the postpartum depression and postpartum psychosis claims surrounding it, and the unnerving trend of people avoiding plain language like “murder” while trying to relocate guilt onto doctors, medications, or even the husband. Yes, psychiatric medication harm is real. No, euphemisms don’t bring children justice. We try to hold both truths at once, without flinching. 

Joshua Charles and Mike Pantile join us for a wide ranging conversation that connects true crime headlines to everyday moral formation. We talk about SSRI stacking, withdrawal, intrusive thoughts, and why “mental health awareness” can become a permission slip instead of a warning label. We also react to public commentary from pro-life influencers, contrasting language that blurs responsibility with reactions that insist on accountability and consequences. 

Then we pivot to the viral modesty tweet that triggered a full blown backlash: the outrage wasn’t just about clothing, it was about whether a man is allowed to ask anything of a woman at all. That opens into fraternal correction, boundaries in courtship, standards in marriage, and the way social media trains all of us to chase validation instead of truth. If you care about family, faith, and sanity in modern relationships, this one will challenge you. 

Subscribe, share this with a friend who will disagree, and leave a review with your take: where do you draw the line between compassion and excuse?
Support the show

Get 10% off an amazing Black Monk Rosary by going to https://www.blackmonkrosaries.com/?ref=AVOIDINGBABYLON and using code AVOIDINGBABYLON at checkout!
Check out our sponsor, Nic Nac, at www.nicnac.com and use code "AB25%" for 25% off of your first order!
Please subscribe! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKsxnv80ByFV4OGvt_kImjQ?sub_confirmation=1
https://www.avoidingbabylon.com
Merchandise: https://avoiding-babylon-shop.fourthwall.com
Locals Community: https://avoidingbabylon.locals.com
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Want to reach out to us? Want to leave a comment or review? Want to give us a suggestion or berate Anthony? Send us a text by clicking this link!
A neighborhood isn’t just a place to sleep. It’s a memory machine, a network of elders, a parish rhythm, and a shared story that tells your kids who they are. When that breaks, everything else gets easier to break too.

We start with a clip-driven conversation that spirals into a bigger question: how do narratives and propaganda reshape what a nation believes it is? Using the Darryl Cooper conversation as a jumping-off point, we talk about “myth” not as fantasy, but as the framing stories that decide what you’re allowed to say, what you’re allowed to defend, and what you’re trained to fear. From there we connect identity to faith, especially the Catholic instinct to see ourselves in a long historical line of saints, martyrs, and Christendom.

Then we get concrete about urban planning and social engineering. We discuss how suburbanization and mid-century “renewal” projects, including the Robert Moses era in New York, fractured ethnic Catholic neighborhoods and dispersed parish communities into isolated households. Once people are cut off from community, mass media and institutional pressure work far better. We also wrestle with the internet as a double-edged sword: it can reveal truth and help believers find each other, but it can also turn Christianity into content instead of lived community.

We close by talking about fear and preparedness: why “collapse” may look less like a movie and more like financial leverage, digital currency, and normalized control. Along the way we touch on civil conflict, division, martyrdom, and a listener question on millennials going no contact with parents, including the difference between boundaries and unnecessary rupture. If this conversation hits home, subscribe, share it with a friend, and leave a review so more people can find the show.
Support the show

Get 10% off an amazing Black Monk Rosary by going to https://www.blackmonkrosaries.com/?ref=AVOIDINGBABYLON and using code AVOIDINGBABYLON at checkout!
Check out our sponsor, Nic Nac, at www.nicnac.com and use code "AB25%" for 25% off of your first order!
Please subscribe! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKsxnv80ByFV4OGvt_kImjQ?sub_confirmation=1
https://www.avoidingbabylon.com
Merchandise: https://avoiding-babylon-shop.fourthwall.com
Locals Community: https://avoidingbabylon.locals.com
Full Premium/Locals Shows on Audio Podcast: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1987412/subscribe
RSS Feed for Podcast Apps: https://feeds.buzzsprout.com/1987412.rss