Hey everybody, before we jump into the podcast, I want to let you know that if you become an annual

supporter over at matfrad.locals.com slash support, you will get a free pines with a

coin as beerstein, you just pay shipping, you'll get access to our free courses, you'll get access

to our post show live streams that are exclusive to our local supporters, also monthly spiritual

direction with Father Gregory Pine, as well as our free quarterly newspaper sent to your door.

It's called the Jill and we even pay the shipping on that one no matter where in the world you live.

If you're interested in getting these perks, please go to locals.com, sorry matfrad.locals.com slash

support and sign up as an annual supporter to get those perks and you'd be tremendously helping us

as a ministry. Thank you. Dr Ben Reinhard, lovely to have you on the show. It's great to be here.

Give people a quick bio of you. All right, so I'm currently Professor of English at

Franciscan University of Stupinville. Before that, I was at Christenham College for about

nine years. I was born in Indiana to a anabaptist family converted to Catholicism and graduate

school at Notre Dame. And that's the 15 second version. And a Tolkien geek. And a Tolkien geek.

Yeah. I know I have an answer to this, but I want to know you all is what's the difference between

a nerd and a geek? Oh, between a nerd and a geek. Geeks more derogatory, isn't it?

I think we're I don't know. I think nerd actually implies a little bit more knowledge. Geek is

what was that the other way? When I think of nerd and geek, I think a nerd is somebody who's smart.

Okay. And a geek is someone who probably has collectibles on their shelf. Okay. And it's more

like obsessive about more pop cultural things that smart people are into. Okay. So yeah, I guess

by that definition, I'm a Tolkien geek. I've got I've got the bust in my office and on campus.

When were you first introduced to Tolkien? I was probably about seventh grade. You know,

it's just sort of looking around for things to read. I found that my dad had a copy of the

...