Battle HarderNo Man Fights Alone.

I became a father at 21 years old. I loved my children, but I didn't know nearly as much about being a good father as I thought I did. I was young, immature, serving in the United States Navy, learning how to be a husband, and trying to figure out adulthood while raising a family. And looking back, there are things I wish I'd understood much sooner. In Episode 2 of 50 Before 50 , I'm sharing some...

Can you spend your life protecting and serving others without losing yourself in the process? After 19 years in law enforcement, Eric Tung has seen how the job can change a person—not just through major traumatic events, but through the everyday stress, cynicism, pressure, and emotional exhaustion that accumulate over time. Eric survived a dangerous shooting involving a propane fire that left him...

I was approaching 300 pounds, spending money on dangerous shortcuts, and convincing myself I knew everything about fitness. I was wrong. As I approach my 50th birthday, I'm launching something new on Battle Harder: 50 Before 50 , a 50-lesson series about the mistakes, experiences, and hard truths I wish I'd understood when I was younger. I'm also writing a book alongside the series. And for Episod...

“Dad, why are you so angry all the time?” Those words forced former police officer Joe Henderson to confront something he hadn't been willing to see: the emotional armor he'd built to survive the job was affecting the people he loved most. After years of responding to traumatic incidents, Joe learned to shut down emotionally and keep his experiences to himself. He believed he was protecting his pa...

The people you love shouldn't have to pay for the pressure you're carrying. Money problems. Work stress. Rejection. Exhaustion. Trying to build a better future and feeling like absolutely nothing is moving. Sometimes life keeps piling things on until one small inconvenience becomes the thing that makes you lose your shit. Your wife asks a simple question. Your child needs your attention. Somebody...

What happens when trying to fix everything becomes the very thing exhausting you? Three months after becoming a mother, Lara J. Day developed a persistent illness that would change the next decade of her life. She searched for answers through conventional medicine, alternative practices, countless practitioners, and treatments that often left her with more questions than answers. At the same time,...

Being a nice guy doesn't automatically make you a good man. For a long time, we've been taught that being a good man means keeping everybody happy. Avoid arguments. Don't upset anybody. Say yes. Keep the peace. But what happens when being nice means avoiding the conversations you need to have, ignoring your own boundaries, or failing to stand up for somebody who needs you? Sometimes the kindest th...

William “Big Sarge” Hansen spent 22 years in the military and deployed five times to the Middle East. After suffering serious injuries in Iraq, he returned home dealing with chronic pain, dependence on prescription medication, depression, and the loss of the man he used to be. Then his young daughter touched his face and asked why he hadn't been the same since coming home. That moment changed ever...

Your relationship ends. It's easy to make a list of everything the other person did wrong. I did it too. After an 18-year marriage ended, I had a long list of everything I believed my ex-wife had done wrong. Eventually, though, I had to confront a much harder question: What the fuck did Rob do? Because if I didn't understand what I contributed to the failure, I was eventually going to bring the ex...

Ryan Stewman has had to start over more than once. He left home young, sold drugs, survived an overdose, went to prison, became a millionaire, went back to prison, went through divorce, lost the career he thought he'd have for the rest of his life—and rebuilt again. Today Ryan is an entrepreneur, author, husband and father of four. But this conversation isn't about the money or the success. It's a...

I've been divorced for about ten years. And when you get divorced with kids, everybody talks about custody, child support, weekends, holidays, schedules and court orders. Nobody really prepares you for what happens afterward . What does it feel like dropping your child off and driving home without them? What happens when communication between parents breaks down? How do you stop putting your child...

Richard Oelberger, PhD spent years helping other people navigate trauma, addiction, homelessness and some of the most difficult moments of their lives. Then suddenly, he was the one who didn't have the answers. While his daughter was dealing with a serious and difficult-to-diagnose illness, Richard lost his position at the hospital where he worked. The psychologist accustomed to helping others thr...

What if healing doesn't mean you're ever completely “done”? For me, living with mental-health issues means continuing to do the things that help me have more good days than bad ones. Fitness. Nutrition. Sleep. Medication. Talk therapy. Journaling. Communication. Recognizing when I'm isolating. Knowing my warning signs. Using the tools I've learned. Because I've realized something: Healing isn't so...

Michael Hansen has lived a lot of lives. Navy diver. Desert Storm veteran. Police officer. Federal agent. Entrepreneur. But at 58, Michael isn't interested in spending the rest of his life talking about who he used to be. For years, Michael lived with undiagnosed PTSD. Then heart disease led to five stents and eventually triple-bypass surgery. As he was being wheeled toward surgery, he had a reali...

Your kids aren't going to have you forever. As parents, we want to help. We fix the problem, make the phone call, handle the bill, grab the tools and show up when our kids need us. But at some point, helping our children can become doing everything for them. After my daughter called me about a warning light on her car, I started thinking about a much bigger question: Are we preparing our children...

Nancy Nance has lived through the kind of loss that makes the phrase “choose joy” sound almost impossible. Her 10-year-old daughter Emily died in a tragic water accident. Nancy was also living through domestic abuse, addiction, financial devastation and years of trauma that had already begun long before her daughter's death. So when Nancy says she chooses joy today, she isn't talking about pretend...

What if you’re not actually lazy—you’re mentally exhausted? You know what needs to get done. You want to be productive. You want to train, take care of your family, handle your responsibilities and keep moving forward. But lately, even simple things feel harder than they should. So you start telling yourself: I’m getting lazy. I need to get my shit together. I used to be more disciplined than this...

JD Tremblay did something almost nobody on Earth has done: 10 Ironman-distance triathlons in 10 consecutive days across six Hawaiian islands. He even sold his house to help make the attempt possible. But after pushing his body and mind to the edge, JD discovered something achievement couldn't give him. In this episode of the Battle Harder Podcast, Rob Wheeler sits down with military veteran, firef...

Three children are dead. Cora was five. Dawson was three. Callan was eight months old. Before discussing Lindsay Clancy, postpartum psychosis, medication, mental illness or criminal responsibility, I believe those three children deserve to come first. In this Battle Harder Bonus Episode, I examine one of the most difficult questions raised by the Lindsay Clancy case: When does understanding someon...

Anger is usually the reaction. The harder question is what's underneath it. After Gus watched a clip from my Battle Ready Solo episode Why Good Men Become Angry Men , we ended up talking about our own experiences with anger, why losing control isn't strength, how easily we can misunderstand what other people mean, and what we've learned about slowing down before reacting. Sometimes the most import...

What happens when the role that defined you is suddenly gone? For veterans, first responders, business owners, athletes, fathers, and anyone going through a major life transition, losing a role can feel like losing part of yourself. I know that feeling. I spent 10 years in the Navy, more than 17 years in law enforcement, owned a gym, and built different versions of my identity around each chapter....

Taylor Cavanaugh has lived a life most people couldn't imagine. Jail. Navy SEAL. Back to jail. Addiction. Homelessness. A suicidal moment alone in his car. Then another rebuild that eventually took him into the French Foreign Legion. But this conversation isn't really about becoming a SEAL or surviving extreme environments. It's about how someone capable of doing incredibly difficult things can st...

Anger isn't always the problem. Sometimes it's the armor. For years, I thought I was simply an angry man. I had a temper, I was confrontational, and small things could send me from zero to one hundred. But as I've gotten older and continued working on myself, I've realized that underneath anger there can be fear, hurt, resentment, exhaustion, insecurity, overwhelm and the feeling that you're losin...

Six weeks before his first Ironman, Tony Medrano was hit by a car while cycling and separated his shoulder. He had every reason to quit. Instead, he asked his doctor one question: “Can I still do it?” Six weeks later, Tony completed the 140.6-mile Ironman—adapting his swim, changing how he rode, and refusing to allow an injury to make the decision for him. Tony is a U.S. Navy veteran, entrepreneur...

Sometimes the strangest things make you question your entire life. For Rob, it was finishing Parks and Recreation with his wife and watching the characters move into the next chapters of their lives. At 2 a.m., he was still awake thinking about his own life, losing the gym, approaching 50, and one question he hasn't been able to shake: When does being stuck finally end? What starts as two friends...