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Dr. Matthew Mehan on Imagination: The Raw Material for Thinking

HeightsCast: Forming Men Fully Alive

Release Date: 08/21/2025

Dr. Matthew Mehan on Imagination: The Raw Material for Thinking

HeightsCast: Forming Men Fully Alive

Properly understood, the imagination is not something you escape to; it’s something you draw upon every day to make decisions, understand events, and communicate. This week on HeightsCast, Dr. Matthew Mehan explores the purposes of the imagination and the habits of wit and wisdom that help us insightfully process our world. We may think of the imagination at odds with reality. But, he says, cultivating the imagination actually makes us more capable, “wittier” thinkers about reality. Chapters: 00:03:05 Defining the imagination 00:05:31 “Good mother wit” 00:08:25 How LLMs undermine...

Colin Gleason on Discipline: Giving Room for Good Things

HeightsCast: Forming Men Fully Alive

by Terrence O. Moore by Harper Lee by G. K. Chesterton Also on the Forum: by Alvaro de Vicente featuring Colin Gleason by Andrew Reed Featured Opportunities: at The Heights School (November 13-15, 2025)

Chris Vander Woude on Ordinary and Heroic Virtue

HeightsCast: Forming Men Fully Alive

In 2008, Tom Vander Woude died saving the life of his youngest son. But this radical self-gift was really the culmination of a quiet life of daily virtue with a heart of faith. Chris Vander Woude, the fifth of Tom and Mary Ellen’s seven sons, now carries the story of his father’s life and death across the country, as well as sharing the process towards canonization that began this year with the assignment of a postulator in Rome. Chris joins us today to speak about fatherhood and the extraordinary man who exemplified it for him. Chris invites you to reach out to him at or . Chapters:...

Alvaro de Vicente on Enjoying Our Children and Why It’s Important

HeightsCast: Forming Men Fully Alive

They know we love them; but do our children sense that we like them? And how does that relate to their formation? In the intense season of togetherness that is summer break, headmaster Alvaro de Vicente recommends four practices to help us live more in the present and enjoy our children—even when the anxieties of life come knocking. Chapters: 00:02:17 Distinction between loving and liking 00:06:49 Four tools for cultivating “like”: 00:08:02 1. Express triple-gratitude 00:10:45 2. Spend unnecessary time 00:15:25 3. Find the humor 00:17:15 4. Pray for the grace 00:18:38 Why liking them...

Dr. Joseph Lazilotti on the Sex Difference in Education

HeightsCast: Forming Men Fully Alive

Months ago, Heights teacher Joe Lanzilotti took up a prodigious project: reviewing the body of popular literature on boys’ education. Partway through his journey, Dr. Lanzilotti catches us up on the diversity of scientific, biological, psychological, and moral perspectives—and how they cohere into a bigger picture of boys and where their developmental needs differ from those of girls. Framing the evidence with papal guidance from the last century gives us a solid starting-point to consider the education of boys according to their nature. Chapters: 00:04:09 The timeline of research on boys...

Clare Morell on the Tech Exit: How Smartphones Undermine Our Parenting—and How to Reverse Course

HeightsCast: Forming Men Fully Alive

The ever-changing tech landscape and the ever-growing research on interactive screens means that the topic must come up anew year after year. For parents trying to keep pace, Clare Morell has compiled the most up-to-date research into her recent release, The Tech Exit. Armed with the facts and interviews with dozens of Tech Exit families, she encourages parents that it’s never too late to reverse course on smartphones. United with other families trying to do the same, we can replace the new “smartphone milestone” with real milestones that emphasize the goods of the real world. Chapters:...

Dr. Matthew Tapie and Dr. Lionel Yaceczko on Parental Authority and Thomas Aquinas

HeightsCast: Forming Men Fully Alive

In 1858, six-year-old Edgardo Mortara is forcibly removed from his family’s home in accordance with civil and canon law. His Jewish family’s legal appeal invokes, to great effect, the theology of St. Thomas Aquinas. Dr. Matthew Tapie and former Heights teacher Dr. Lionel Yaceczko join us this week to pull apart this difficult case with the assistance of St. Thomas, who gives a theological basis for parental authority in accordance with natural law—a useful perspective for our culture today. Chapters: 00:04:06 The Mortara Case (1858) 00:11:12 The personality of an original document...

Christopher Scalia on Finding Your Next Novel

HeightsCast: Forming Men Fully Alive

In a world competing for our attention, our guest this week admits: “It’s probably harder to read novels now than it ever was.” But their value cannot be overstated. The novel’s unique humanity, its careful and open treatment of the human experience, helps us to develop a sympathetic imagination, tuning our hearts and minds in a way that non-fiction argument simply cannot. Christopher Scalia, author of 13 Novels Conservatives Will Love (but Probably Haven’t Read), makes the case that it is a distinctly conservative interest to explore the Western tradition through...

Joe Cardenas on A Change of Soul: Reimagining the Purpose of Vacation

HeightsCast: Forming Men Fully Alive

As we conclude the school year, parents are turning their sights to summer and the much-anticipated family vacation. We bear such hope for rest and connection on these trips—but we can too easily end up chasing a bucket-list. Head of Mentoring Joe Cardenas offers a timely intervention for our vacation planning, reminding us to plan for people before places. Bringing his own family traditions and Crescite Week experiences to the question, he offers a new set of questions to help us plan and enjoy a truly transformative, restorative vacation for all members of the family. Chapters: 00:02:57...

Alvaro de Vicente on Choosing a College—Or Not

HeightsCast: Forming Men Fully Alive

As more families scrutinize their post-high school options for virtue and value, the field has perhaps never been wider. Choosing a path carefully, with the right balance of priorities, should be the goal for every high school graduate. Before serving as our headmaster, Mr. Alvaro de Vicente was the Heights college counselor. Over the last few decades, he’s witnessed an exciting shift in the way students and their parents can evaluate, prioritize, and choose a path after graduation that serves the whole person well. And while colleges are responding more and more to these good demands, Mr....

Properly understood, the imagination is not something you escape to; it’s something you draw upon every day to make decisions, understand events, and communicate.

This week on HeightsCast, Dr. Matthew Mehan explores the purposes of the imagination and the habits of wit and wisdom that help us insightfully process our world. We may think of the imagination at odds with reality. But, he says, cultivating the imagination actually makes us more capable, “wittier” thinkers about reality.

Chapters:

00:03:05 Defining the imagination
00:05:31 “Good mother wit”
00:08:25 How LLMs undermine the wit
00:11:05 Beyond the “moral imagination”
00:15:33 Imagination of the Founding Fathers
00:20:03 Aesop and governing your animal spirits
00:24:28 The mistakes of Naturalism
00:27:57 18th century ABCs
00:32:13 Role models for the civic imagination
00:40:38 Who chooses what goes in
00:43:26 Reality educates us
00:46:39 Recommendations for parents
00:52:24 Metaphor control: guarding your hope
01:02:33 Humor and joy

Links:

mythicalmammals.com, Matthew Mehan’s website

“Restoring America’s Founding Imagination” by Matthew Mehan

Mr. Mehan’s Mildly Amusing Mythical Mammals by Matthew Mehan

The Handsome Little Cygnet by Matthew Mehan

The Plutarch Podcast by Tom Cox

Illustrated Aesop’s Fables by Aesop, with an introduction by G. K. Chesterton

Fifty Years on the Old Frontier by James Cook

Saints Series Podcast by The Merry Beggars

The Boy Stories Series by Tom Longano

Also on the Forum:

Metaphor Control: A Modest Hope for Civilization by Matthew Mehan

Shaping Your Son’s Moral Imagination (article) by Alvaro de Vicente

Shaping Your Son’s Moral Imagination (lecture) featuring Alvaro de Vicente

Seeing History: On Using Images in the History Classroom by Kyle Blackmer

Featured opportunities:

Convivium for Teaching Men at The Heights School (November 13-15, 2025)