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The Home Front

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Rating
★★★★★
4.8
from
43 reviews
This podcast has
127 episodes
Language
English
Explicit
No
Date created
2024/05/08
Latest episode
2026/10/23
Average duration
54 min.
Release period
7 days

Description

Leila and Phil Lawler have been talking to each other about everything for almost 50 years. Join as they discuss every aspect of the battle on the home front. leilamarielawler.substack.com

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Check latest episodes from The Home Front podcast


The Overton Window now; SCOTUS and trans; what bishops need to disavow
2026/10/23
Show Notes: The Overton Window (Mackinac Center) An Introduction to the Overton Window of Political Possibilities (Mackinac Center) US ambassador to Holy See visits Taybeh day after settler attack on locals, European diplomats (Zeale) Justices leave lower court order in place preventing Trump administration from implementing transgender inmate policy (SCOTUSblog) Supreme Court Rules on Trump Admin Policy Blocking Sex-Rejecting Procedures for Prisoners Matt Fradd: Did Mary Really Appear in Egypt? Our Lady of Zeitoun (Fr. Anthony Mourad) | Ep. 601 Fifty-one years ago today: Carlton Fisk hits home run in Game 6 All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy (affiliate link) Phil Lawler’s Substack Leila’s other Substack: The School for Housewives Leila’s blog: Like Mother, Like Daughter Lawler Family Book Club list (scroll down) Your paid subscription means a lot to us and helps us continue our work, but we are happy for you to receive our podcast in your email for free! Get full access to Happy Despite Them at leilamarielawler.substack.com/subscribe
Catholic teaching on capital punishment, principles and prudence; Fr. James Martin’s deceptions
2026/10/16
Show Notes: Changes in the Catechism on capital punishment: Original wording 2266: Preserving the common good of society requires rendering the aggressor unable to inflict harm. For this reason, the traditional teaching of the Church has acknowledged as well-founded the right and duty of legitimate public authority to punish malefactors by means of penalties commensurate with the gravity of the crime, not excluding, in cases of extreme gravity, the death penalty… 2266, cont.: The primary effect of punishment is to redress the disorder caused by the offense…. 2267: If bloodless means are sufficient to defend human lives against an aggressor and to protect public order and the safety of persons, public authority should limit itself to such means, because they better correspond to the concrete conditions of the common good and are more in conformity with the dignity of the human person. As amended by Pope John Paul II 2267: “…cases of absolute necessity for suppression of the offender today are very rare, if not practically non-existent.” As amended again by Pope Francis (in current edition) 2266: The efforts of the state to curb the spread of behavior harmful to people’s rights and to the basic rules of civil society correspond to the requirement of safeguarding the common good. Legitimate public authority has the right and the duty to inflict punishment proportionate to the gravity of the offense. Punishment has the primary aim of redressing the disorder introduced by the offense... 2267: Recourse to the death penalty on the part of legitimate authority, following a fair trial, was long considered an appropriate response to the gravity of certain crimes and an acceptable, albeit extreme, means of safeguarding the common good.Today, however, there is an increasing awareness that the dignity of the person is not lost even after the commission of very serious crimes. In addition, a new understanding has emerged of the significance of penal sanctions imposed by the state. Lastly, more effective systems of detention have been developed, which ensure the due protection of citizens but, at the same time, do not definitively deprive the guilty of the possibility of redemption.Consequently, the Church teaches, in the light of the Gospel, that “the death penalty is inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person”, and she works with determination for its abolition worldwide. On the death penalty, an uncertain trumpet by Phil Lawler: Nowhere has confusion about Catholic teaching on capital punishment been more in evidence than in the responses to Pete Hegseth’s plan to livestream the execution by firing squad of the Fort Hood terrorist. Phil Lawler’s Substack Leila’s other Substack: The School for Housewives Leila’s blog: Like Mother, Like Daughter Lawler Family Book Club list (scroll down) Your paid subscription means a lot to us and helps us continue our work, but we are happy for you to receive our podcast in your email for free! Get full access to Happy Despite Them at leilamarielawler.substack.com/subscribe
AI: Man can’t make consciousness; Vatican in denial as lavender mafia has its way; and more!
2026/10/09
Show Notes: Religious Scholars Met with Anthropic. What They Heard Stunned Them (New York Times) (archived here) A warning about ‘model welfare’ (Mustafa Suleyman, Substack) 10 Years After Amoris Laetitia, Bishops to Discuss Challenges of Families at the Vatican ‘Amoris Laetitia’ Is Consistent With Church Teaching, Sister Tells Pope and Bishops Pope on Amoris laetitia: What Church do people meet when most fragile? [sic] Wilmer will bring to Rome experiences of “homosexual couples” and divorced people who have remarried at the meeting on Amoris laetitia Short version of Leila’s argument regarding the contradiction of Amoris Laetitia (scroll down to footnote 2) The long version is in the appendix of this book (endorsed by Cardinal Pell, RIP) How the Sexual Revolution Led to Cornell by Louise Perry (WSJ) The Campus Rape Myth (Heather MacDonald, City Journal) Orley Farm, by Anthony Trollope Phil Lawler’s Substack Leila’s other Substack: The School for Housewives Leila’s blog: Like Mother, Like Daughter Lawler Family Book Club list (scroll down) Your paid subscription means a lot to us and helps us continue our work, but we are happy for you to receive our podcast in your email for free! Want to tell a friend? Please do! It’s a great way to help us! How about this, if you enjoyed listening to this one episode: Get full access to Happy Despite Them at leilamarielawler.substack.com/subscribe
Grandparents kill their way out of gender ideology; Pope Leo in France; the Cornell 7: how about basic decency? and more!
2026/10/02
Show Notes: Pope Leo in France: highlights Pope Leo’s in-flight presser: “So, I would say, if that’s politics, I did that, but it was not to get involved in French politics. It was to teach what the Church really believes.” The insanity of the coverage of this story: Trans NYT exec charged with child abuse threatened to kill spouse before in-laws shot her to death in California: court docs. But then, the story is insane. Support Andy Ngo on Substack. Pope Leo’s address to Civil Authorities in France Cornell 7 gang rape case. Phil Lawler’s Substack Leila’s other Substack: The School for Housewives Leila’s blog: Like Mother, Like Daughter Lawler Family Book Club list (scroll down) Your paid subscription means a lot to us and helps us continue our work, but we are happy for you to receive our podcast in your email for free! Want to tell a friend? Please do! It’s a great way to help us! How about this, if you enjoyed listening to this one episode: Get full access to Happy Despite Them at leilamarielawler.substack.com/subscribe
Coincidentally, Massachusetts will push postpartum home visits; Surrogacy fights over baby’s life; AI threat; and more!
2026/09/25
State intrusion after baby is born: Governor Healey Announces New Actions to Strengthen Maternal Mental Health and Postpartum Care from the MA government website Maura Healey Wants Increased Maternal Mental Health Spending Following Lindsay Clancy Trial (New Boston Post) Maura Healey Wants to Investigate Parents of Every Newborn Baby (LifeNews) Massachusetts Considers Bill to Prioritize Treatment Over Punishment for New Mothers with Postpartum Psychiatric Illness Nikole Hannah-Jones: She flunks all the tests: In which we talk about court-ordered forced busing: How to resolve AI threats: J.P. Morgan and the Panic of 1907: How one financier proved mightier than Wall Street (Daily News) The history of 1907 Financial Crisis: The Unseen Hand of J.P. Morgan (World History Journal) Surrogacy Gridlock: Supreme Court Turns Away Surrogate Appeal in Messy Custody Fight (Wall Street Journal Supreme Court stays out of custody dispute between California couple and surrogate (CBS) And More: Confraternity of Christian Mothers Phil Lawler’s Substack Leila’s other Substack: The School for Housewives Leila’s blog: Like Mother, Like Daughter Lawler Family Book Club list (scroll down) Your paid subscription means a lot to us and helps us continue our work, but we are happy for you to receive our podcast in your email for free! Want to tell a friend? Please do! It’s a great way to help us! How about this, if you enjoyed listening to this one episode: Get full access to Happy Despite Them at leilamarielawler.substack.com/subscribe
The week’s news: RFK Jr. at the GOP midterm convention; juror intimidation, state kidnapping over transing teen, &etc.
2026/09/18
Show Notes: New Details About Holdout Juror in Lindsay Clancy Case Revealed Report of an interview with the holdout juror in the Clancy case Robert Kennedy’s speech at the Republican Midterm Convention Massachusetts kidnaps a teen to trans her against her parents’ will Our interview with Robert Royal on his book about the 21st century martyrs: Phil Lawler’s Substack Leila’s other Substack: The School for Housewives Leila’s blog: Like Mother, Like Daughter Lawler Family Book Club list (scroll down) Your paid subscription means a lot to us and helps us continue our work, but we are happy for you to receive our podcast in your email for free! Want to tell a friend? Please do! It’s a great way to help us! How about this, if you enjoyed listening to this one episode: Get full access to Happy Despite Them at leilamarielawler.substack.com/subscribe
Bishops’ outcries and silences; Don’t expand entitlements - eliminate them
2026/09/11
Show Notes: * The German bishops’ outcry; the US bishops’ silence by Phil Lawler Why the AfD Wins by Christopher Caldwell Germany’s ‘Firewall’ Against the Far Right Is Being Tested as Never Before ~ News analysis, The New York Times (archive version here) The AfD Rises on the German Right ~ Editorial on The Wall Street Journal (check this page to see if the article is archived yet) Mitt Brennender Sorge: On the Church and the German Reich, Pope Pius XI (1937) * Using the Child Care and Development Fund for married couples with one spouse staying home with children: Pro: The Stay-At-Home Parent Debate Is GDP First Vs. America First​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​ Con: Welfare Queens of the Right and the Diet Coke of Socialists How the program works Lawler Family Book Club list (scroll down) Phil Lawler’s Substack Leila’s other Substack: The School for Housewives Leila’s blog: Like Mother, Like Daughter Your paid subscription means a lot to us and helps us continue our work, but we are happy for you to receive our podcast in your email for free! Want to tell a friend? Please do! It’s a great way to help us! How about this, if you enjoyed listening to this one episode: Get full access to Happy Despite Them at leilamarielawler.substack.com/subscribe
Gov. Shapiro and the Dems’ midterm strategy; Fr. Mankowski and the SJs; The Inklings, the Crusades, and more!
2026/09/04
Update (from when we recorded): The second “unvaccinated person” measles-associated case is put in perspective by Lancaster County Commissioner Josh Parsons. He makes five points about the information given to the public. A must-read on this developing situation. Democratic Socialists of America Measles Hysteria: A Timely Political Hit Job by Mary Talley Bowden The Pope and the Jesuits: John Paul II and the New Order in the Catholic Church ~ by James Hitchcock Pontifex Minimus — Fr. Mankowksi’s review of Fr. James Martin S.J.’s book Building a Bridge, in First Things Farewell, Uncle Di: Father Paul Mankowski, RIP ~ Phil Lawler’s obituary on CatholicCulture, with links to some Mankowski classics Diogenes Unveiled: A Paul Mankowski, S.J., Collection (affiliate link) ~ edited by Phil Lawler Jesuit at Large: Essays and Reviews by Paul Mankowski, S.J. (affiliate link) ~ edited by George Weigel The Sound of Silence: The Life and Canceling of a Heroic Jesuit Priest (affiliate link) ~ by Karen Hall Tolkien and the Inklings: Men of the West (affiliate link) ~ by Bradley J. Birzer The Crusades: A History (affiliate link) ~ by Jonathan Riley-Smith Phil Lawler’s Substack Leila’s other Substack: The School for Housewives Leila’s blog: Like Mother, Like Daughter Your paid subscription means a lot to us and helps us continue our work, but we are happy for you to receive our podcast in your email for free! Want to tell a friend? Please do! It’s a great way to help us! How about this, if you enjoyed listening to this one episode: Get full access to Happy Despite Them at leilamarielawler.substack.com/subscribe
The roots of conservatism; the magnanimity of Dolly Parton; and more!
2026/08/28
Show Notes: How One Man Invented the Conservative Moment ~ Lee Edwards on Buckley’s “Fusionism” The Neoconservatives: An Endangered Species ~ Russell Kirk George Nash, The Conservative Intellectual Movement in America Since 1945 (affiliate link) The U.S. Marches Toward State Capitalism With American Characteristics (Wall Street Journal) The U.S. Government Now Owns Stakes In 30 Companies. Intel Is Just The Beginning (Forbes) Adam Smith, Theory of Moral Sentiments (free ebook) Thomas Sowell, Knowledge and Decisions (affiliate link) Dolly Parton, RIP Dolly Parton’s philanthropy was based on ‘her belief in the goodness of people’ Magnanimity ~ St. Thomas Aquinas Ida Friederike Görres, Bread Grows in Winter Phil Lawler’s Substack Leila’s other Substack: The School for Housewives Leila’s blog: Like Mother, Like Daughter Your paid subscription means a lot to us and helps us continue our work, but we are happy for you to receive our podcast in your email for free! Want to tell a friend? Please do! It’s a great way to help us! How about this, if you enjoyed listening to this one episode: Get full access to Happy Despite Them at leilamarielawler.substack.com/subscribe
Save our institutions and our freedom from Woke; the laity vs. the bishops; a book about Lyme disease and biological warfare
2026/08/21
Show Notes: Cambridge chancellor condemns media frenzy after Black professor’s death How can lay Catholics spur bishops into action? (Phil at CatholicCulture) Nathan Cofnas (who wrote about Jason Arday, exposing his plagiarism and lack of credentials) Exit, Voice, and Loyalty: Responses to Decline in Firms, Organizations, and States, by Albert O. Hirschman (affiliate link) Bitten: The Secret History of Lyme Disease and Biological Weapons by Kris Newby (affiliate link) Phil Lawler’s Substack Leila’s other Substack: The School for Housewives Leila’s blog: Like Mother, Like Daughter Your paid subscription means a lot to us and helps us continue our work, but we are happy for you to receive our podcast in your email for free! Want to tell a friend? Please do! It’s a great way to help us! How about this, if you enjoyed listening to this one episode: Get full access to Happy Despite Them at leilamarielawler.substack.com/subscribe
Gov. Healey vs. the Church: excommunication or...? Principles and prudence in politics and saying what you mean.
2026/08/14
Show Notes: Governor Healey signs abortion bill (and here on the MA website). John O’Sullivan reacts to Healey photo on X The Massachusetts bishops’ polite collapse by Phil Lawler Excommunication? Not gonna happen by Phil Lawler Statement by Archbishop Henning of Boston (released after the bill was signed) CatholicVote president urges Massachusetts bishops to consider excommunication of Gov. Healey for signing late-term abortion law Bishop Barron’s statement (released after bill was signed) McCarrick’s legacy in the Biden-Communion debate by Phil Lawler (August 2020) The Faithful Departed: The Collapse of Boston’s Catholic Culture by Phil Lawler (affiliate link) Testimony of Anthony Levatino, MD, JD [former abortionist] before the Committee on the Judiciary, U.S. House of Representatives on why abortion is never necessary for the life of the mother Ross Douthat and the founder of Orchid, a company to enable IVF users to use eugenics to choose embryos (see minute 1:03 for the clip) Ross Douthat and Samuel Moyn, Yale professor, on whether parents or the state has the children’s interests at heart. Saying what you really think: freedom and friendship by Leila M. Lawler Ford v. Ferrari Phil Lawler’s Substack Leila’s other Substack: The School for Housewives Leila’s blog: Like Mother, Like Daughter Your paid subscription means a lot to us and helps us continue our work, but we are happy for you to receive our podcast in your email for free! Want to tell a friend? Please do! It’s a great way to help us! How about this, if you enjoyed listening to this one episode: Get full access to Happy Despite Them at leilamarielawler.substack.com/subscribe
Peaceful assembly underlies all other 1A rights; Florida bishops rightly rebuked on vaccine mandates
2026/08/07
Show Notes: Jeff Childers: “The Constitution’s essence prioritizes individual rights over collective ones, even in “pandemics.” A journalist who intellectually grasped the Constitutional rights hierarchy would at least have acknowledged that individual rights are the baseline, and then argued about how preparedness fits within those rights.” CNN Didn’t Interview Kamala Harris, It Swaddled Her In A Security Blanket Florida’s upside-down dispute over religious freedom by Phil Lawler Florida AG threat to Catholic schools ‘clear violation’ of the First Amendment, law scholar says (OSV News) Catholic law scholars didn’t bother much before… odd. Note on the morality of using some anti-Covid-19 vaccines (Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith) Letter from Dr. John Haas, National Catholic Bioethics Center Phil Lawler’s Substack Leila’s other Substack: The School for Housewives Leila’s blog: Like Mother, Like Daughter Your paid subscription means a lot to us and helps us continue our work, but we are happy for you to receive our podcast in your email for free! Want to tell a friend? Please do! It’s a great way to help us! How about this, if you enjoyed listening to this one episode: Get full access to Happy Despite Them at leilamarielawler.substack.com/subscribe
The Fauci Diary hearings
2026/07/31
Show Notes: Contagious Faith: Why the Church Must Spread Hope, Not Fear, in a Pandemic by Phil Lawler (affiliate link) Doctor Anthony Fauci on why he left the US government | BBC News Covid Lockdowns Were an Elite-Made Tragedy - WSJ Imposed Mass Hypochondria by Leila Lawler Fauci’s net worth — and his wife’s contribution First on Fox: Trump DOJ reaches settlement with pro-life protester targeted by Biden admin Phil Lawler’s Substack Leila’s other Substack: The School for Housewives Leila’s blog: Like Mother, Like Daughter Your paid subscription means a lot to us and helps us continue our work, but we are happy for you to receive our podcast in your email for free! Want to tell a friend? Please do! It’s a great way to help us! How about this, if you enjoyed listening to this one episode: Get full access to Happy Despite Them at leilamarielawler.substack.com/subscribe
Modesty and complementarity; Euthanasia and organ harvesting
2026/07/24
Show Notes: Modesty: Sports Networks Urged To Ban ‘Inappropriate’ Shots of Female Athletes Book Club on my blog Like Mother, Like Daughter: A reading of Wendy Shalit’s A Return to Modesty Organ harvesting: Can We Kill You for Your Organs, Please? (Wall Street Journal) Garnet Harper, a 35-year-old father of five beautiful children, was denied a life-saving kidney transplant in Ontario, solely because he wasn’t vaccinated against COVID (What I wanted to say about this tragic story of Garnet Harper is that clearly the covid shot isn’t that important: it was important enough to let him die, but not to disqualify his organs. Listen to what people do, and what they say when they aren’t directly addressing the topic. That’s how you know whether they are telling the truth about something.) The US ambassador’s diplomatic skirmish at the Vatican (with more reporting than just about the hotdogs and gelato) Phil’s Substack Leila’s other Substack: The School for Housewives Leila’s blog: Like Mother, Like Daughter Your paid subscription means a lot to us and helps us continue our work, but we are happy for you to receive our podcast in your email for free! Want to tell a friend? Please do! It’s a great way to help us! How about this, if you enjoyed listening to this one episode: Get full access to Happy Despite Them at leilamarielawler.substack.com/subscribe
The bishops' academic scandal; ACB, leftist violence, and the ordinary person
2026/07/17
Show Notes: Academic Scandal: Catholic Theological Society of America honors self-described queer theologian (CWN) Another scandal our bishops have failed to address Synod report includes testimonies from civilly ‘married’ homosexuals Leftist Violence and Justice Amy Coney Barrett: Supreme Court justices make rare Capitol Hill appearance to push $230M security budget Suspect in former U.K. minister’s killing rearrested on suspicion of act of terror . Carrie Severino on X: Sen. John Husted on the growing threats of violence against the justices: “Do you believe that they’re intentionally designed to intimidate you to alter or change the opinions of the Court?”Justice Amy Coney Barrett: “It’s hard to see how some of them are not designed to do precisely that. I think they’re designed to intimidate or designed maybe to punish after decisions that the person sending the threat didn’t like as a warning not to do it in the future.” There Can Be No Peace Or Unity With A Violent, Unrepentant Left Wesley Yang on X: I have no basis for thinking that Barrett has allowed fear of assassination to change any decisions. I do know that a federal court judge told a trans-identified man who brought a semi-automatic rifle to Bret Kavanaugh’s house after Googling the addresses of three of the other justices that she was “heartened” that his murder plot had led his family to start affirming his claim to be a woman and cited a Trump administration order requiring that male federal prisoners be housed with men even if they say they are women as one of the reasons she reduced his sentence from the 30 years dictated by the guidelines to eight years. The man explicitly declared that he had targeted the justices for murder in order to preempt the overturning of Roe v Wade with violence. With time already served, he’ll be out in four years. Books: House of Ten Thousand Books on IG — where I learned I must read Summer at Tiffany! This Is Happiness by Niall Williams (affiliate link) The Child from the Sea by Elizabeth Goudge The Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant: The Complete Annotated Edition (affiliate link) Phil’s Substack Leila’s other Substack: The School for Housewives Your paid subscription means a lot to us and helps us continue our work, but we are happy for you to receive our podcast in your email for free! Want to tell a friend? Please do! It’s a great way to help us! How about this, if you enjoyed listening to this one episode: Get full access to Happy Despite Them at leilamarielawler.substack.com/subscribe

Podcast reviews

Read The Home Front podcast reviews


4.8 out of 5
43 reviews
★★★★★
TheCarelessCat 2025/10/02
My favorite weekly podcast!
Love love love your podcast! Please work on the sound quality, though.
★★★★★
Active listener in FL 2025/08/25
My Favorite Weekly Check-in
I listen to podcasts pretty much every day. They are my go-to while driving, while cutting grass, walking the dog, folding laundry, etc. Unfortunately...
★★★★★
keb224 2025/08/20
The best Catholic podcast out there
I look forward to this podcast every week! For any Catholic looking to stay current on issues in the world and in the church, this is the only resourc...
★★★★★
bizy kids 2025/05/08
Absolute best Catholic commentary
A winning duo, this husband and wife impart thoughtful, informative, and engaging content with intelligence, wit, and warmth. I look forward to every ...
★★★★★
RC Bryan C 2025/04/27
The Lawlers are Awesome
This is such a great show, my wife and I both love to listen. Married Catholics can learn a lot from this brilliant, pragmatic, and orthodox couple.
★★★★★
josephhardin 2024/08/24
Sanity in a World of Disorder
It doesn’t get better than hearing a wonderful, brilliant, catholic married couple talking about the current facets of life and politics. My wife and...
★★★★★
Arquette 3965 2024/05/11
Voices of Reason
Love Leila and Phil! I have followed Leila for years at Like Mother, Like Daughter. She is your mother, cheering you on, yet keeping you in line! I...
★★★★★
Ken_J_H 2024/05/10
definitely worth a listen
Hello - Leila and Phil are just starting out on their own podcast - first episode is great! It will be worth listening to these seasoned and insightfu...
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