221: Bon Jovi, Word of the Year & Saint Power Rankings w/Jon Blevins

We're doing a Forte Flashback this week, highlighting our cohost Kathryn Whitaker's first two appearances on the podcast as a guest. These conversations were the seeds planted that eventually led to her joining us on a monthly basis. Today's show kicks off with her first appearance is person on Ep 256. We were recording in Liv Harrison's house so the three of us shared some things that are anchors or foundations for them as people that keep us strong during even the toughest of times. Then we go alllll the way back to Ep 153. This was back in our radio/podcast days. The title of the episode was "Nightmares Are You Scaring /you" which is still one of my favorite episode titles. We discuss her book "Live Big, Love Bigger: Getting Real with BBQ, Sweet Tea and a Whole Lotta Jesus" which is a title that perfectly captures Kathryn's aura. She shares her story of dealing with loss and pain, how it affected her relationship with Christ and, as a bonus, how to share your faith without being a weirdo. If you like this episode, all of our episodes are available wherever you are listening to this. Check out our backlog if you've joined us at some point in the last eight years! A great place to start is the list of our top ten episodes which can be found at ForteCatholic.com/podcasts. Subscribe/Rate Never miss out on the craziness of each episode by hitting the subscribe button RIGHT NOW! Help other people find the show by taking a few moments to leave a review in your podcasting app. Thanks! YouTube Check out the show and other exclusive videos on our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/fortecatholic Connect 🎉Twitter: @taylorschroll & @fortecatholic 🎉Instagram: @taylorschroll 💖Twitch: Twitch.tv/fortecat Donate Forte Catholic is a 501c3 non-profit organization. Support the work with a tax-deductible donation here. Thanks! https://www.fortecatholic.com/donate All music used on the show is by Brandon “BeTheSymbol” Morel. Find his music at bethesymbol.com. Episode art & editing by Sarah Allen Produced by Taylor Schroll Special Guest: Kathryn Whitaker.

Taylor & Kathryn do a Lenten check-in, discuss their differing views on the Gen Z Bible trend on social media & Taylor shares about how his best night ever at a blackjack table relates to Heaven, Hell & our spiritual lives. Subscribe/Rate Never miss out on the craziness of each episode by hitting the subscribe button RIGHT NOW! Help other people find the show by taking a few moments to leave a review in your podcasting app. Thanks! YouTube Check out the show and other exclusive videos on our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/fortecatholic Connect 🎉Twitter: @taylorschroll & @fortecatholic 🎉Instagram: @taylorschroll 💖Twitch: Twitch.tv/fortecat Donate Forte Catholic is a 501c3 non-profit organization. Support the work with a tax-deductible donation here. Thanks! https://www.fortecatholic.com/donate All music used on the show is by Brandon “BeTheSymbol” Morel. Find his music at bethesymbol.com. Episode art & editing by Sarah Allen Produced by Taylor Schroll

Taylor shares about he and his wife's recent trip to North Carolina for the Game of Favorites wedding between our friends Peter and Yenza. They met dozens of internet friends in person for the first time, had a tremendous time celebrating the newlyweds & some fancy food(that made Taylor realize he's an idiot!) This leads to Allison sharing about her own wedding, some hilarious stories of her kids in Mass & Schitt's Creek(of course!). Taylor also shares about one of the longest homilies he's ever heard and some of the strangest things he saw at a recent Mass. It's like they did EVERYTHING POSSIBLE to make the Mass a hostage situation. Subscribe/Rate Never miss out on the craziness of each episode by hitting the subscribe button RIGHT NOW! Help other people find the show by taking a few moments to leave a review in your podcasting app. Thanks! YouTube Check out the show and other exclusive videos on our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/fortecatholic Connect 🎉Twitter: @taylorschroll & @fortecatholic 🎉Instagram: @taylorschroll 💖Twitch: Twitch.tv/fortecat Donate Forte Catholic is a 501c3 non-profit organization. Support the work with a tax-deductible donation here. Thanks! https://www.fortecatholic.com/donate All music used on the show is by Brandon “BeTheSymbol” Morel. Find his music at bethesymbol.com. Episode art & editing by Sarah Allen Produced by Taylor Schroll

Fr. Anthony has convinced Taylor to watch wrestling for the second time, and this time it's a family affair! At Fr. Anthony's behest, the entire Schroll family sat down to watch the Royal Rumble and it was a HIT! They discuss how this event really won over these non-wrestling fans and what this experience teaches us about how we can better evangelize. In the next segment, Taylor shares about a recent podcast he listened to about "pilot voice", when all airline pilots sound the same. They discuss how this extends to priests in homilies and maybe even Catholic speakers/podcasters. It's a fun discussion about conformity, making people feel safe & some bonus rare voice acting work by our hosts. Subscribe/Rate Never miss out on the craziness of each episode by hitting the subscribe button RIGHT NOW! Help other people find the show by taking a few moments to leave a review in your podcasting app. Thanks! YouTube Check out the show and other exclusive videos on our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/fortecatholic Connect 🎉Twitter: @taylorschroll & @fortecatholic 🎉Instagram: @taylorschroll 💖Twitch: Twitch.tv/fortecat Donate Forte Catholic is a 501c3 non-profit organization. Support the work with a tax-deductible donation here. Thanks! https://www.fortecatholic.com/donate All music used on the show is by Brandon “BeTheSymbol” Morel. Find his music at bethesymbol.com. Episode art & editing by Sarah Allen Produced by Taylor Schroll

Chris Bartlett cohosts and shares with Taylor some of the wholesome media he's been watching and Taylor does likewise. They discuss Ted Lasso, Welcome to Wrexham, Everybody Loves Raymond and more borderline family shows. Then the guys play a long lost Forte game called "Read My Lips." They take turns muting and guessing the Super Bowl themed words that the other is saying and guessing by only reading lips. And of course, they make every word connect with a Catholic concept (many rather loosely lol) To close the show, they dive into the talk from Msgr. Shea at the FOCUS conference. This talk has swept the nation and seems to really be connecting with people. Chris praises it while Taylor has some mixed feelings about it and questions why the talk worked so well. It's a great conversations that challenges many of both hosts assumptions. We hope you enjoy! Subscribe/Rate Never miss out on the craziness of each episode by hitting the subscribe button RIGHT NOW! Help other people find the show by taking a few moments to leave a review in your podcasting app. Thanks! YouTube Check out the show and other exclusive videos on our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/fortecatholic Connect 🎉Twitter: @taylorschroll & @fortecatholic 🎉Instagram: @taylorschroll 💖Twitch: Twitch.tv/fortecat Donate Forte Catholic is a 501c3 non-profit organization. Support the work with a tax-deductible donation here. Thanks! https://www.fortecatholic.com/donate All music used on the show is by Brandon “BeTheSymbol” Morel. Find his music at bethesymbol.com. Episode art & editing by Sarah Allen Produced by Taylor Schroll Special Guest: Chris Bartlett.

Taylor was recently leading worship for a retreat and ended up actually leading worship for two retreats simultaneously! Can he now bilocate? MAYBE! He shares the wild story of how this happened with Kathryn and you! Next, our hosts talk about their shared love for Jason Kelce. They discuss how his innate confidence in who he is is so inspiring. To close the show, Kathryn shares about her yearly PURGE of her house and it's implications on her family life, stress levels & it's connections to our spiritual lives. Subscribe/Rate Never miss out on the craziness of each episode by hitting the subscribe button RIGHT NOW! Help other people find the show by taking a few moments to leave a review in your podcasting app. Thanks! YouTube Check out the show and other exclusive videos on our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/fortecatholic Connect 🎉Twitter: @taylorschroll & @fortecatholic 🎉Instagram: @taylorschroll 💖Twitch: Twitch.tv/fortecat Donate Forte Catholic is a 501c3 non-profit organization. Support the work with a tax-deductible donation here. Thanks! https://www.fortecatholic.com/donate All music used on the show is by Brandon “BeTheSymbol” Morel. Find his music at bethesymbol.com. Episode art & editing by Sarah Allen Produced by Taylor Schroll

This is the kindest and holiest episode we've done in a WHILE! Taylor & Allison rediscover the Five Love Languages with some new insight they haven't seen before that apply to all the relationships in our lives. They also say very kind things about a lot of people in their lives while discussing how it takes an entire community for us to see all the attributes of God. Who knew this show could be so kind!?!?! Subscribe/Rate Never miss out on the craziness of each episode by hitting the subscribe button RIGHT NOW! Help other people find the show by taking a few moments to leave a review in your podcasting app. Thanks! YouTube Check out the show and other exclusive videos on our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/fortecatholic Connect 🎉Twitter: @taylorschroll & @fortecatholic 🎉Instagram: @taylorschroll 💖Twitch: Twitch.tv/fortecat Donate Forte Catholic is a 501c3 non-profit organization. Support the work with a tax-deductible donation here. Thanks! https://www.fortecatholic.com/donate All music used on the show is by Brandon “BeTheSymbol” Morel. Find his music at bethesymbol.com. Episode art & editing by Sarah Allen Produced by Taylor Schroll

Last week, we came to you live from Ireland! This week, Taylor is back home & shares a plethora of stories from his travels with Fr. Anthony. From wild travel stories, to being a fish out of water in another country, to experiencing TWO new cultures to explaining why he was there in the first place, Taylor has a ton to share. These stories have humor, faith insight & more. We hope you enjoy this storytelling episode of the show! Subscribe/Rate Never miss out on the craziness of each episode by hitting the subscribe button RIGHT NOW! Help other people find the show by taking a few moments to leave a review in your podcasting app. Thanks! YouTube Check out the show and other exclusive videos on our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/fortecatholic Connect 🎉Twitter: @taylorschroll & @fortecatholic 🎉Instagram: @taylorschroll 💖Twitch: Twitch.tv/fortecat Donate Forte Catholic is a 501c3 non-profit organization. Support the work with a tax-deductible donation here. Thanks! https://www.fortecatholic.com/donate All music used on the show is by Brandon “BeTheSymbol” Morel. Find his music at bethesymbol.com. Episode art by Sarah Allen Produced & Edited by Taylor Schroll

Live From Ireland! Taylor traveled to Dublin to speak at the Awake Ireland Conference hosted by the Syro-Malabar Youth Movement. Syro-Malabar is one of the rites within the Catholic Church. In this episode, Taylor talks about the history of the rite, its roots in India, how it differs from the Latin rite & much more. Join Taylor, Ebin Baby & Fr. Binoj live from the Awake Conference to learn about our Syro-Malabar brothers & sisters faith tradition. To kick off the show, Taylor talks with Ebin Baby, the director of the Syro-Malabar Youth Movement for Ireland. Ebin shares the roots of the Syro-Malabar rite tracing all the way back to Doubting St. Thomas who made the journey to southern India to share the Gospel. Connect with Ebin @baby_ebin on Instagram. Then, Taylor is joined by Fr. Binoj Mulavarickal, the leader of the Syro-Malabar Youth Movement for all of Europe. He and Taylor discuss his first experience at a Syro-Malabar rite Mass (called Qurbana) & adoration. They talk about what makes the Syro-Malabar rites different than what those of us in the Latin rite may be used to. Taylor shares about the beautiful experience of worshiping in this new way. Fr. Binoj is an incredible speaker and highly regarded musician with millions of listeners on YouTube & Spotify. Connect with him @binoj_achan on Instagram. Subscribe/Rate Never miss out on the craziness of each episode by hitting the subscribe button RIGHT NOW! Help other people find the show by taking a few moments to leave a review in your podcasting app. Thanks! YouTube Check out the show and other exclusive videos on our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/fortecatholic Connect 🎉Twitter: @taylorschroll & @fortecatholic 🎉Instagram: @taylorschroll 💖Twitch: Twitch.tv/fortecat Donate Forte Catholic is a 501c3 non-profit organization. Support the work with a tax-deductible donation here. Thanks! https://www.fortecatholic.com/donate All music used on the show is by Brandon “BeTheSymbol” Morel. Find his music at bethesymbol.com. Episode art by Sarah Allen Produced & Edited by Taylor Schroll Special Guests: Ebin Baby and Fr Binoj Mulavarickal.

Happy New Year! Taylor is back with some great guests to celebrate the New Year. Keith from Grassroot Catholic returns to the show to co-host this week. He & Taylor discuss their Christmas celebrations, including quite possibly the worst Mass experience Taylor has ever had! Later, they discuss piety, knowing we love God but lacking the desire to do anything about it & devotion. Keith tries to guide Taylor through some issues as an emergency spiritual director stand-in. Follow Keith @grassrootcatholic on Instagram. Also this week, Fr. Peter Pomposello joins Taylor to teach us about military priests. Fr. Peter (also known as Fr. Uncle Sam) discusses how he became a priest for the diocese of the US military, how the military works with priests & more. It's a fun discussion with insight into an entire part of the Catholic world that Taylor knew almost nothing about. Follow him @fr.unclesam on Instagram. Subscribe/Rate Never miss out on the craziness of each episode by hitting the subscribe button RIGHT NOW! Help other people find the show by taking a few moments to leave a review in your podcasting app. Thanks! YouTube Check out the show and other exclusive videos on our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/fortecatholic Connect 🎉Twitter: @taylorschroll & @fortecatholic 🎉Instagram: @taylorschroll 💖Twitch: Twitch.tv/fortecat Donate Forte Catholic is a 501c3 non-profit organization. Support the work with a tax-deductible donation here. Thanks! https://www.fortecatholic.com/donate All music used on the show is by Brandon “BeTheSymbol” Morel. Find his music at bethesymbol.com. Episode art by Sarah Allen Produced & Edited by Taylor Schroll Special Guests: Fr. Peter Pomposello and Grassroot Catholic.