The Upgraded Man

This is the most valuable part of our conversation with Nate Spangle, founder of Get Indiana, pulled out as its own episode. Nate is known across Indiana as a hype man. Big stunts, small towns, a truck, a camera. But none of that is where the story starts. It starts in 2017, when his mom died of cancer while he was in college. He admits he was a self-absorbed 20 year old who talked mostly to hear...

Joel Bein spent two years clearing more than a thousand beliefs on himself before he ever worked on anyone else. In this episode he does it live, on Chris. Joel finds the belief that has been running Chris since he was a kid, walks him through it on camera, and about fifteen minutes later Chris says the words out loud and feels nothing. Joel is the founder of Human Liberation, where he works one o...

The Upgraded Man Journal is the part of every episode where the guest reads what the last guest left behind, answers it honestly, and then writes something for the man who comes next. No prep. No script. Just the question and whatever comes up. This week it is Phillip Lanier, founder of Your Money Essentials and Core Business Essentials. Before he built and sold a company, he and his wife were hom...

Larry Hagner is the founder of The Dad Edge and host of The Dad Edge Podcast. He has spent more than a decade helping men become better husbands and fathers. In this Wednesday episode, he lays out the order most men get backward at home. Larry uses an oak tree to explain it. The branches are your marriage, your kids, your work, your friends. The trunk is you. Most men skip the trunk. They selfless...

Most men were taught that being nice is the same as being good. Paul Roseberry has spent more than ten years showing men that this is the reason a lot of good guys are losing at home. Paul is a relationship coach and former matchmaker who now works almost exclusively with nice guys, and he is also a headlining standup comedian. He is the creator of the SECURITY Method. In this episode he sits down...

When Ralph Brewer's marriage ended in infidelity and divorce, he was left with three young kids, a shattered sense of identity, and no real support system. What started as private journaling and anonymous blog posts grew into a mission to help men navigate divorce, recover from betrayal, and understand why so many relationships quietly die. In this episode of The Upgraded Man, host Chris Anderson...

Most men do not lose their marriage in one big blowup. They lose it slowly, by being in the house but not actually in the room. In this episode, Chris Anderson sits down with Thomas Edwards Jr, founder of The Professional Wingman and author of The One Up Effect: Gamify Your Life to Win and Have Fun Playing, to talk about why so many high performing men feel like a stranger in their own home, and w...

In 2020, Tim McDonald went to an urgent care for a pain in his side. He left knowing he had stage IV colorectal cancer that had already spread to his liver. A second oncologist told him he had three years to live. Almost six years later, after a liver transplant and a long stretch of treatment, Tim is still here, still working, and still traveling with his wife every year. Chris Anderson sits down...

Nate Spangle never set out to build a media company. He set out to be the first truck in line at the Indy 500. That single idea, filmed on his phone while walking into work, blew up overnight and became Get Indiana, the brand now known across the state for hyping up small towns, local businesses, and the people most folks would drive right past. In this episode, Chris Anderson sits down with Nate...

Most men were never taught how to be a great father or husband — they were left to figure it out on their own, often repeating the very patterns they swore they'd break. In this episode of the Upgraded Man Podcast, host Chris Anderson sits down with Larry Hagner, founder and CEO of The Dad Edge, who has spent fourteen years building a community and body of work to help men lead their families with...

Ever feel like you're grinding harder than ever and still scraping by before the next paycheck hits? You're not bad with money. The world changed — and most men were never handed a plan. In this episode of The Upgraded Man Podcast, Chris Anderson sits down with Philip Lanier, a former construction laborer who went from homelessness to selling his own company and now teaches everyday people how to...

You are working harder than ever and the needle still will not move. In this episode of The Upgraded Man Podcast, host Chris Anderson sits down with Dr. Joseph Drolshagen, creator of the SMT method and a 27-year corporate sales veteran turned subconscious performance coach, to expose the real reason most men stall out in business and wealth building. It is not your strategy. It is not the economy....

What does it really mean when a man says, "That's just who I am"? In this episode of The Upgraded Man, host Chris Anderson sits down with Arky Jones, founder of Personality Peak and a lifelong student of stoicism, to unpack why that phrase is usually an excuse rather than an identity. Born in England and now based in Australia, Arky brings a hard-won perspective shaped by military training, a seri...

At 70 years old, Jeff broke four ultra-distance cycling world records in a single day, and he did it after training for only a few months. On this episode of The Upgraded Man Podcast, host Chris Anderson sits down with the record-breaking cyclist, former aerobatic pilot, and performance coach to take apart one of the most common excuses men hide behind: a lack of motivation. Jeff makes the case th...

High achievers don't get stuck because they lack effort. They get stuck because they're moving fast in the wrong direction. In this episode of The Upgraded Man Podcast, Chris Anderson sits down with high-performance coach Tim Kelly to unpack why so many capable men hit a ceiling and what it actually takes to break through. Tim is a former Navy rescue swimmer, commercial real estate investor, autho...

What does it take to turn 325 acres of Indiana woods into a national spirits brand and an "adult Disneyland" that pulls visitors from across the country? In this episode of The Upgraded Man Podcast, Chris Anderson sits down with Jeff McCabe, co-founder of Hard Truth Distilling Co., for a wide-ranging conversation on craft, mindset, family, and the long game of building something that lasts. Jeff i...

In this episode of The Upgraded Man Podcast, host Chris Anderson sits down with Dr. Carla Caturia, a mindset and family relationship expert who has worked with thousands of families to help fathers strengthen their connection with their kids. As the first female guest since the show's rebrand, Dr. Carla brings a fresh, practical perspective to one of the toughest questions dads face: how do I stay...

Welcome to the very first guest episode of The Upgraded Man Podcast. Host Chris Anderson sits down with Dr. Bobby Shelton, a researcher and speaker on self-leadership theory, for a conversation about what it actually takes for a man to like himself again, and why so many high-achieving men are quietly running on empty. Bobby opens up about the morning he sat in a chair for an hour and a half, refu...

In 1910, a former president stood at the Sorbonne and delivered what would become one of the most quoted passages in American history. But Theodore Roosevelt wasn't a polished motivational speaker that day. He was a man who had buried his wife and mother on the same day, disappeared into the Badlands for two years, and rebuilt himself from nothing. That's the man behind "The Man in the Arena" — an...

In this debut episode of the newly rebranded Upgraded Man Podcast, host Chris Anderson lays out the foundation for everything to come. After years of running the Elevate Media Podcast, Chris is honing in on a clear mission: helping men who refuse to stay complacent become better versions of themselves, one day at a time. This solo episode introduces the five pillars that will guide every future co...

This is a milestone moment. In episode 500, host Chris Anderson pulls back the curtain on what it actually takes to stay consistent for nearly a decade of podcasting, the relationships that changed the trajectory of his business, and the biggest announcement in the show's history: the Elevate Media Podcast is officially becoming The Upgraded Man Podcast. Chris gets candid about starting in the cor...

Most men don't lose their relationships because they stopped trying — they lose them because they never understood what actually creates lasting attraction and respect. In this episode, Chris sits down with A.D. the Kingmaker Dunbar, a former engineer who invested over $200,000 and years of study into understanding relationship dynamics from every angle imaginable — from Muslim men with multiple w...

Have you been doing everything right — putting in the work, staying consistent — but you still can't break through to the next level? This episode is for you. Chris Anderson shares the timeless "Three Feet from Gold" story from Napoleon Hill's Think and Grow Rich and unpacks what it means for every entrepreneur, business owner, and father who's on the verge of walking away. In this episode: 📖 The...

In this episode, Jim Ferry of Volition Capital pulls back the curtain on growth equity — the often-misunderstood middle ground between venture capital and private equity. If you're a founder wondering whether outside capital is right for your business, this is a must-listen. What you'll learn: The difference between venture capital, growth equity, and private equity (and where you fit) The 3 reaso...

Did you know 15 to 20% of the population has dyslexia, yet most schools are still failing these students? In this episode of the Elevate Media Podcast, host Chris Anderson sits down with Russell Van Brocklen, a dyslexia educator and researcher with over a decade of experience helping students overcome learning differences through a brain-based approach rooted in Yale research. Russell breaks down...