When God Gives, God Takes & Mike Calderese Tackles a Truck
Episode 39 welcomes Mike Calderese back to Wolves & Wisemen Reignited for a conversation that goes from faith and the Book of Job...
Wolves & Wisemen Reignited — Episode 39
About This Episode
To free will...
To suffering...
To losing everything and starting over...
To propaganda, politics and current events...
And somehow begins with Mike explaining how he tried to tackle a Dodge Ram with a bicycle.
Spoiler:
The Dodge won.
But underneath all the usual Wolves & Wisemen chaos is one of the deeper Check In conversations we've had:
If everything you built disappeared tomorrow, who would you be without it?
SPECIAL GUEST: MIKE CALDERESE
Mike Calderese joins the guys from New Jersey.
He's a mason contractor, host of Center Cut Media, outspoken local-government critic and mayoral candidate in Brick Township.
He's also apparently difficult to kill.
Because shortly before this episode, Mike participated in a massive bike-and-beer ride involving hundreds of people.
There was drinking.
There was a stolen bike.
There was a missing speaker.
And eventually...
There was a Dodge Ram.
MIKE VS. THE DODGE RAM
Mike explains that while riding his bicycle home at night, a truck turned into his path.
He hit the brakes.
Went over the handlebars.
And collided with the truck.
After determining that all his body parts were still attached, Mike decided against calling the police.
Instead?
He asked for a beer.
Then, because Mike is running for mayor, he apparently made sure the woman who hit him knew she should vote for him.
There are easier ways to campaign.
But probably none as memorable.
Mike's takeaway?
His bicycle's front brakes definitely work.
And tackling a Dodge Ram gets:
One star. Would not recommend.
THE WOLVES & WISEMEN TIP PROJECT
Before the Check In begins, the guys announce something new.
Over the next several weeks, Wolves & Wisemen plans to collect donations from the community.
Then the guys will contact local restaurants, identify a hardworking employee who could genuinely use some help, go eat at the restaurant and leave 100% of the money collected as a tip.
No complicated program.
No giant organization.
Just people helping somebody who deserves a break.
That's what the pack should be about.
THE CHECK IN: THE LORD GIVES & THE LORD TAKES AWAY
The main Check In comes from the Book of Job.
With fires, floods and disasters destroying homes and changing lives around the country, the guys start talking about something uncomfortable:
What happens when everything you've built disappears?
Job loses nearly everything.
His possessions.
His livelihood.
His children.
His health.
And yet, in the middle of his grief, he worships.
The discussion centers around the famous idea:
The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away.
The point isn't pretending loss doesn't hurt.
It's recognizing that the things we own were never supposed to become the foundation of who we are.
IF EVERYTHING DISAPPEARED TOMORROW, WHO ARE YOU?
Modern life makes it incredibly easy to define ourselves by possessions.
The house.
The vehicles.
The toys.
The career.
The money.
The lifestyle.
But all of it can disappear.
Fire.
Divorce.
Job loss.
Financial collapse.
Illness.
One unexpected event can hit the reset button.
So the question becomes:
If the stuff disappears, what remains?
Your faith?
Your family?
Your character?
Your ability to rebuild?
Or was your identity tied to the things you owned?
WATCHING YOUR HOUSE BURN
That question becomes personal.
One of the guys shares the experience of watching his house burn.
There wasn't anything left to do.
Everybody was safe.
The dogs were safe.
The neighboring homes were safe.
So eventually the realization hit:
It's stuff.
Stuff can be replaced.
People can't.
And once that perspective set in?
Someone showed up with beer.
So they cracked one open and watched the house burn.
Probably not the traditional response to a house fire.
But the lesson stuck:
Losing your possessions doesn't have to mean losing yourself.
SOMETIMES STARTING OVER SETS YOU FREE
Another personal story takes that idea even further.
Big house.
Golf course.
Multiple vehicles.
Motorcycles.
Theater room.
Sound systems.
All the things you're supposedly supposed to want.
And misery.
Eventually the house and most of the possessions were sold.
The replacement?
A camper beside a family member's house.
And strangely enough...
Life got happier.
It also exposed something important.
Some people disappeared when the impressive house and lifestyle disappeared.
Which raises another question:
Do people value you—or what you can provide them?
MIKE'S TAKE: GOD ALREADY GAVE YOU THE TOOLS
Mike approaches adversity differently.
His argument is that he doesn't necessarily expect God to swoop in and solve every problem.
Instead:
God already gave him the tools.
A brain.
Hands.
A trade.
The ability to build.
The ability to communicate.
The ability to adapt.
So when something goes wrong, his job is to use those gifts.
Improvise.
Adapt.
Overcome.
Instead of constantly asking God to rescue him, Mike's perspective is that God already equipped him to face the problem.
THEN THE BOOK OF JOB GETS CONTROVERSIAL
And this is where the Check In becomes especially interesting.
Mike admits:
Job is one of his least favorite books of the Bible.
Why?
Because he struggles with God's role in Job's suffering.
Job is described as righteous.
Yet Satan is permitted to destroy almost everything around him.
Mike questions why a loving God would allow a faithful man to suffer simply to demonstrate that the man's faith would survive.
The guys push back.
And suddenly the Check In becomes a genuine theological debate instead of everybody agreeing with each other.
DOES SUFFERING COME FROM GOD OR FREE WILL?
That debate opens a much bigger question.
Where does suffering come from?
God?
Satan?
Human free will?
Or some combination of all three?
One argument presented is that free will necessarily creates the possibility of evil.
If humans genuinely have the ability to choose good...
They must also have the ability to choose evil.
Without choice, obedience doesn't really mean anything.
You aren't choosing God.
You're simply programmed to obey.
THE SERPENT & THE BEGINNING OF CHOICE
Then Mike takes the conversation all the way back to Genesis.
Adam.
Eve.
The serpent.
The forbidden fruit.
And a wild question:
Was the serpent the catalyst that made meaningful free will possible?
The guys debate whether humanity could genuinely choose God before having knowledge of good and evil.
That leads to a larger discussion about whether the events in Eden were completely outside God's plan...
Or part of a much larger plan from the beginning.
OLD TESTAMENT GOD VS. JESUS
The conversation gets even deeper when the guys compare the way God is portrayed in parts of the Old Testament with Jesus in the New Testament.
Judgment.
Rules.
Destruction.
The Flood.
Then Jesus arrives preaching:
Grace.
Forgiveness.
Compassion.
Redemption.
The guys wrestle with whether this represents a change in God's relationship with humanity, different parts of the same divine plan, or simply something humans aren't capable of completely understanding.
Nobody walks away claiming to have solved theology.
Which is probably a good sign.
WHY SUFFERING MATTERS
Eventually the conversation comes back to something much more practical.
You learn through losing.
You grow through adversity.
You discover what matters when the things that don't matter disappear.
Faith when everything is perfect is one thing.
Faith when everything has fallen apart?
That's different.
Maybe the question isn't:
"Why did this happen to me?"
Maybe sometimes the better question is:
"What am I going to become because it happened?"
REBEL REPORT
Then it's time to completely destroy the peaceful theological mood.
Welcome to Rebel Report.
The guys react to a disturbing Ukraine-war drone video and then dive into AI-generated propaganda videos attributed in the discussion to Iranian and Russian sources.
That opens a broader conversation about propaganda, social media, foreign influence and America's political divisions.
Rather than treating propaganda as something that only comes from overseas, the guys argue about how easily Americans already divide themselves—and how foreign actors can exploit divisions that already exist.
The segment also gets into government spending, homelessness, veterans, minimum wage, foreign aid and dual citizenship in government.
As usual:
Nobody leaves Rebel Report calmer than they entered it.
ARE WE SHOOTING SOMETHING AT THE MOON?
Then comes a story about a rocket stage reportedly heading toward an impact with the Moon.
Naturally, this becomes Wolves & Wisemen.
Will it make a crater?
Will the Moon "ring"?
Will it hit the firmament?
Will somebody put an ACME logo on the rocket?
And most importantly:
Why are humans so determined to launch shit at everything?
LAB-GROWN MEAT
Next rabbit hole:
Cultivated meat.
The guys discuss lab-grown meat, major companies investing in the technology and the language consumers may eventually see used to describe it.
Needless to say...
Nobody sounds particularly excited about replacing a steak with something grown in a laboratory.
FOLKS ON FIRE
Folks on Fire starts simple.
One of the guys gives the nod to his uncle for lending him Starlink so he could broadcast the podcast live from the mountains.
Which is especially useful when the entire chat keeps convincing him that something is moving through the darkness behind him.
Mike eventually offers his own contribution...
Although his choice turns Folks on Fire into considerably more of a roast involving New Jersey's rules surrounding disposable plastic utensils.
That's what happens when you let a mayoral candidate pick Folks on Fire.
SACKED
There are certain things humanity has universally agreed are funny.
Apparently one of them is:
Watching another man get hit in the nuts.
Sacked returns with another collection of unfortunate decisions, terrible timing and direct hits.
Mike strongly objects to deliberate nut-tapping.
The rest of the guys immediately decide this means Mike should be nut-tapped the next time they see him.
Brotherhood.
TODAY IN HISTORY
Today in History goes completely off the rails.
The guys introduce a new idea: mix historical events with some of the biggest songs from a random year.
This time:
1994.
Which immediately becomes a discussion about 90s music, hairstyles and baby-making songs.
Other historical highlights include:
Lizzie Borden
George Washington becoming a Master Mason
Russian exploration of Alaska
Talladega Nights
A nearly 200-foot hot dog
And one of the most devastating celebrity breakups in modern history...
Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy.
Some wounds never heal.
BONER OF THE WEEK
The final Boner targets actor Jonah Hill after a clip discussing his Brazilian jiu-jitsu abilities.
That launches the guys into a completely reasonable and academically rigorous discussion about whether taking Brazilian jiu-jitsu automatically makes somebody capable of beating everybody's ass.
It does not remain academically rigorous for long.
EPISODE 39
A mayoral candidate getting hit by a Dodge Ram.
The Book of Job.
Losing everything.
Starting over.
Free will.
Satan.
Adam and Eve.
The serpent.
Old Testament God.
Jesus.
Propaganda.
Foreign influence.
Ukraine.
AI videos.
The Moon.
Lab-grown meat.
Nut shots.
1990s music.
A 197-foot hot dog.
Kermit and Miss Piggy.
And Jonah Hill.
Somehow...
It's all one episode.
But underneath all the chaos, Episode 39 keeps coming back to one question:
What remains when everything you thought defined you gets stripped away?
The possessions can disappear.
The money can disappear.
The house can disappear.
People can disappear.
But faith, character, experience and the ability to rebuild don't have to disappear with them.
Maybe losing everything isn't always the end.
Sometimes...
It's the reset.
Join the Pack
Wolves & Wisemen Reignited is about faith, family, brotherhood, grit, growth, current events, history and occasionally discovering why you shouldn't tackle a Dodge Ram with a bicycle.
New episodes every Tuesday night.
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And remember:
The truck always wins.