Relentless Pursuit

While pursuing our big dreams for 2025, it's inevitable you're going to encounter obstacles along the way. Are you ready to confront and overcome the barriers in your life?

Is it us, or does it seem like everything is just more expensive these days? Well, thanks to inflation, interest, taxes, and tariffs, tough financial times may just be beginning. 

Today we share 8 simple little "rules" - guidelines, habits, standards - we have for ourselves that help us make sure we're making the best decisions as often as we can. Which of these also work for you? Which of your own would you add?

Love is difficult to quantify, but we can answer the question "How much do you love me?" by our CONSISTENT ACTIONS that show our spouse we care.

Parents have always lived vicariously through their children, but how much of what our children do should be "for their parents?" Today we look at how we might best strike the balance between passing on our values to our chidren and allowing them to develop values, preferences, and passions all their own.

There might be some fashion trends, electronic habits, and physical capabilities we just might not be cut out for after a certain age. But there also might be more serious areas of life where, now that we're old enough, we just can't use age as an excuse any longer. 

What if you could meet your 15-year-old self for a cup of coffee? What would you say? What would you notice? Today Jordan and Rosanna hop on the viral TikTok trend and compose poems visualizing meeting their teenage selves in this thought provoking and emotional reflection. 

We have often sought to label ourselves and one another as either introverted or extraverted...but the truth is that most of us are somewhere in between, and we need to become aware of our social tendencies, our strengths, our weaknesses.

Our relationships are made of thousands of "bids," requesting connection from one moment to the next. How we seek and respond to these bids may just be the most important thing in our marriage and parenting. 

Everyone gets a little lonely sometimes...but in today's era, loneliness is a downright epidemic that is sweeping across the population. With more ways to connect than ever, you'd think we'd feel less lonely, but the truth is we've replaced any of our opportunities for interaction with tech-based conveniences, isolating ourselves. Today we examine the causes of loneliness and the things we can do to combat the corrosive habits of our culture.*We apologize for the audio glitches throughout the episode!

Sometimes we're climbing, sometimes we're growing...and sometimes we're simply maintaining what we have. There's nothing glamorous about the maintenance phases of life, but they are a healthy and necessary part of the long game toward self-fulfillment.

Let's dream big dreams for ourselves in 2025...AND let's make sure we actually put the WORK into turning those dreams into realities!

One year ago, we ended 2023 with an episode expressing some disappointment over how much effort we put into our goals but weren't seeing the results. BUT at the end of 2024, we ARE seeing the results we had worked towards. In this final episode of the year, we share what we're proud of and what we credit our progress to. 

We explore our understanding and relationship to sex in marriage by making 12 accurate, creative, and humorous analogies. 

We know everything costs money...but consider what ELSE our desires, goals, impulses, and decisions may also be costing us. 

When we think about it, many of the most significant aspects of who we are stem from relatively small, forgettable, quirky things we might not even notice. Today we recognize the unrecognized and reflect on those quirky things we usually leave off our Thanksgiving Day gratitude lists. 

Even though we'd rather avoid agony and find ecstasy, these two experiences are interwoven. Today we talk about how we might appreciate - even lean into - the agony in pursuit of those ecstatic moments of life. 

We take so much in our lives for granted, assuming they'll always be there and telling ourselves we'll appreciate them "tomorrow." But taking something for granted means that we don't actually appreciate it until it's gone...and too late. This episode is about not waiting until we lose something - or someone - to fully appreciate it. 

What are you hungry for in life, and how are you feeding those hungers?

There are a lot of things we think only children do...but we adults do them, too. Sure, we think we're justified, or that it's different when we're all grown up. But is it? This episode is all about what it means to grow old, and to grow up.

There is not a lot that we think of as sacred, but our body is the vessel of our soul and the union of the physical and divine. Today we consider what "sacred" means and how we might treat ourselves differently if we thought of our bodies that way.

Don't wait for a problem to arise before you think, "We should work on our marriage!" Problems will arise, but if you work on your marriage when things are good, then you will be ready to confront, together, whatever life throws at you.

When we're young, we worry about what people think. As we grow up, we stop worrying so much. And when we're old...we realize no one was thinking about us in the first place. 

October starts the fourth quarter the year. The fourth quarter! That means it's "go time." Time to push hard, dig deep, and finish our year strong. What goals did you start 2024 with? Now it's time to push hard and feel proud of ourselves on December 31. 

Election years in America are known for causing stress, division, and confusion. On this season's finale episode, we talk about how true Relentless Pursuers can stay engaged in the democratic process while maintaining their health, sanity, and fidelity to what they believe is best for themselves and the nation. 

When we trust our gut, there are little warning bells that sometimes go off that tell us perhaps we should proceed with caution. In today's conversation, we list (a little tongue-in-cheek) some of the flags we identify in others, and some of the flags we confess to having in ourselves. 

Our oldest child is 14 years old and starting high school, and he has been asking to get a SnapChat account. We've resisted, and now we are officially deciding if it's time yet to allow him to enter the world of social media. 

When you combine yourself with something that is more than just you as an individual, you are locking your futures and your outcomes together. Marriage is perhaps the best illustration of two people syncing their lives 0- and their futures - with one another. 

How much of your time is spent with media and entertainment? What is the quality and the format of all that content you're consuming? We compare our media consumption to a diet, reflecting on what is good for us or what might be downright harmful. 

"Be careful, little eyes, what you see" is the old advice to our own eyes to make sure that they are not exposing themselves to things that harm us. In this episode we discuss what kinds of media and entertainment we're regularly exposing ourselves to, and consider the CONTENT and FORMATS that may or may not be so good for us to consume.

We come to terms with the ultimate truth of the phrase "we are what we eat," and we cautiously explore what we are really putting into our bodies. 

We discuss the passive influence our environment has over us - from our photos to our food to our clutter - and how we can exert control over the factors that control us. 

As American Independence Day (July 4) comes around again, we ask ourselves, "What does it mean to be American?" We have 4 different answers that explore the history and meaning of this beautiful, vigorous, complex nation and the people that make it what it is.

This summer we're making a few "vows" to ourselves to make sure we maintain the right mentality when it comes to living our healthiest and most successful lives this season.

June 19th is also known as "Juneteenth" - a holiday often called "America's second Independence Day" commemorating the end of American slavery. While it has been celebrated since 1866, it was only recently recognized as a federal holiday, and we were excited to learn more about the history and tradition of this worthwhile American celebration. 

Although a lot has changed for dads over the past few generations, a lot has remained the same as well. Kids still need the love, guidance, and unique attention that only fathers can bring! Happy Father's Day to all you dads out there!

Ordinary families might have ordinary conversations...or none at all. But what are the kinds of words and interactions that GREAT - healthy, happy, prospering, together - families share with one another? This week we take a look at the power that words have, as well as the role that parents specifically play toward ensuring the conversations between spouses, from parents to kids, and between kids all rise above the typical and ordinary

With Mother's Day around the corner, we reminisce on what we learned from our mothers, what kids at different stages of life need, how mothers can uniquely influence their sons and their daughters, and what moms really want their children to say about them when they're older. 

We love learning, and  we especially believe in the power of the "I can do anything" mentality. But at a certain point, we reach our limit with how much we can learn and grow on our own, and we have started to realize...we can't do it on alone anymore!

Knowing when we should be saying "yes" to opportunities and when we should be saying "no" is one of the important arts of life. Saying "yes" brings us opportunities, experience, reputation, confidence, and knowledge. But saying "no" brings us boundaries, peace, and options. In this conversation we explore the difference situations where a "yes" or a "no" would be more appropriate, and our own experiences with leaning into each. 

How do we pursue all the good things in life? Our responsibilities can make us feel "busy" and drained, but with some strategy, management, passion, and communication, it is possible to make time for it all.In this episode, we give an overview of what the Catapano's are currently involved in and how we spend our days...and why.   

Parenting is hard! Shout out to all you parents out there, doing your best for your children. Helicopter...Tiger...Snow Plough...Elephant...There are a variety of parenting styles (and nicknames). Today we discuss which parenting styles we have embraced over the years, and whether or not our household is "kid-centric."

Recent events surrounding The Princess of Wales remind us that the world is full of conspiracy theories, and it's getting harder for us to distinguish fact from fiction, and reality from hypothesis. The human brain is remarkably inclined to see conspiracies everywhere, thanks to our desire to build order from chaos and our skepticism towards institutions that control our lives. But we need to remind ourselves to take a breath, do our research, and not believe everything we hear. 

Frugality is something of a lost virtue these days. We confuse it for being cheap, or stingy, or a minimalist, or self-depriving. But when we think of frugality as something to avoid, we might unfortunately be erroring on the side of excess and consumption. Listen in as we talk about what frugality might truly mean and look like in this day and age.

Humans have a limitless appetite for stories, but the quantity and quality of the stories we consumer - from streaming platforms and social media - are splintering our connections to one another. It's time to focus more on what brings us together. 

We ask each other a series of thoughtful, silly, and hypothetical questions with the goal of having fun and learning more about one another. Listen in and laugh with us, and borrow your favorite questions to ask others!

Today we sit down with bestselling author Danielle Walker and discuss the impacts of food on our bodies, long term health goals and health crises, and the important balance that couples strike to support one another at their highest and lowest moments. As she struggled with  an autoimmune disease, Danielle discovered beautiful ways to radically alter what and how she ate. She has pioneered a rich set of recipes that offer delicious alternatives to the Standard American Diet, helping millions of people improve their health and overall wellbeing.We enjoyed our conversation with Danielle and learned so much from her! We strongly encourage you to pick up her memoir Food Saved Me, and to grab one of her cookbooks or check out her website where you can find more recipes. Danielle Walker is an entrepreneur, mother, and 4x New York Times bestselling cookbook author (Against All Grain, Meals Made Simple, Celebrations, Eat What You Love, Food Saved Me, Healthy in a Hurry). She was featured on the coveted Forbes 30 under 30 list in 2015 and has sold over 1 million copies of her cookbooks. For more information, please visit: https://daniellewalker.com/Follow Danielle on Instagram: @daniellewalker

The "first place" is your home. Your "second place" is your work. And your "third place" is where you go when you're escaping the pressures of the first two places. Unfortunately, our "third place" is disappearing from many of our lives. What's your Third Place? 

If The Relentless Pursuit Podcast is about anything, it's about the importance of conversation with those significant in your life (namely, your spouse). But regular, quality conversation does not happen by itself. In this episode, we offer a few core principles we believe about conversation, and some general guidelines we try to remind ourselves of to make sure that quality conversation happens.

Even though it seems like we have a lot that makes us feel happy, accomplished, and focused...we often find ourselves asking, "What are we even doing with our lives?" This, as it turns out, isn't so uncommon. In this conversation we discuss why even when things seem to look good on paper, our feelings of satisfaction and contentment don't always match up. And sometimes - even though it feels like on the surface we "have it all together - we still wonder if we're doing any of it right after all.