Menfolk Journeys

This is a MONSTER episode.  How do you go from a completely chaotic childhood filled with abuse and mixed families, push through a confusing adulthood of service and religion, and find yourself with a 30+ year marriage, a bevy of beautiful children, and a path towards continual learning? How can you do that, unless you are indomitable, unbreakable, and made of Titanium? This story is one that need...

What does it mean to combine a profession and a purpose? Who among us are working towards meaning with how they make a living? This story is about a man who learned through his own patterns that meaning and purpose in everyday activity is what he was meant to do. The people he has met and the opportunities that have unfolded all lead him on a path of purpose and to a place where his livelihood and...

Is pride and love for our children unconditional?  Do we - at our core, as parents - want our children to be happy and proud of their most authentic selves? We know that over the entire history of human culture, from Gallelio to the Suffragettes to Martin Luther King, Jr., people have changed social norms.  So why wouldn't social norms about gender, roles, expectations, and how some people se...

Happy Father's Day! This episode is a tribute from menfolk of all backgrounds telling stories about their pops. Stories of great moments, times we saw them at work, the lessons learned, and how they made memories that lasted our whole lives. From Chuckles the porpoise, to watching pop do plumbing, to cleaning beakers for 50p, skiing, chess, road trips, and not ever learning to swing a hammer,...

What does it mean to live a life of purpose and faith in the real world of commerce and community? Every man's faith journey is unique, and some have a journey that aligns all the elements of Religion, Church, and personal belief.  In the backdrop of an upbringing in a crowded house in San Francisco, John grew up with six siblings, a WWII hero cop father, and a mother who was the glue of the...

When you are shocked into Manhood, sometimes the only way forward is to do what you love. And by pursuing a passion, you might end up taking care of everything else. Usually, if you love what you do, you'll be good at it. And, if you bring that passion into everything you do, then usually you end up being a successful person. Because what matters is not what measures other people put on you,...

Growing up in California in the 50s and 60s gave to the lucky ones a blessed and idyllic start in life. Sunshine, prosperity, optimism, and the chance to play in a place that seemed to offer everything. What does that upbringing do to your state of being? How do you view the unfolding of a life when its beginnings are so comfortable and positive? This is a story about how a man allowed his life to...

"All who wander are not lost" is a cliche, because it's true. Our own journeys move around, and can unfold in ways we can't predict. My friend Gary has had an EXTRAORDINARY career path, with a LinkedIn resume that is filled with national brands. He has followed his own journey as it revealed itself, even though it seemed at times to be wayward and roundabout. Yet, throughout it...

How does a man discover that his pursuit of science can be a remedy for a childhood of uncertainty? When we live in an environment we don't choose, how can we respond with an entire course of a life?  If we have a solitary nature, how do we balance that with the expectations of being an active father? This conversation explores how a man realizes all these seemingly juxtaposed situations can...

One of the more philosophical and poetic moments of the “Rocky” movies is in the last one, Rocky Balboa. In it, Rocky tells his son “You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain't about how hard you hit. It's about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward; how much you can take and keep moving forward.” And again, in pop culture, is the Marvel story of Daredevil, a...

The path to choosing to be an entrepreneur is different in every case. To forego a traditional career where you “find a job,” and instead push into the unknown where you create your own career is rare and takes a certain kind of skill and gumption. What drives someone to do that? Why do those people not only take a different road in life, but actually pave a different road for themselves to take?...

We all have met friends who seem to connect in ways that are deep and abiding. These are the "brothers from another mother" who are there for us for all our lives.  These are the friends like Augustus McCrae and Woodrow Call from "Lonesome Dove," like your friend when you were twelve who felt related, like your pal in later years who helps you when you're at your absolute...

The Buddhist and Hindu (and other) precepts of multiple lives are well-known. Whether you think that is a valid life perspective or not, and whether you think this is your only life and there isn’t another go-round, anyone I’ve met agrees that we have “multiple lives” within this life. I have a new life now than I did when I was in my 20s and even my 30s. I look at my life back then—the environmen...

Transformation happens to all of us, all the time. When men go through different transformations, sometimes they're planned and sometimes they're shocks to the system.  Sometimes it makes them change who they are. Sometimes it makes them rethink who they have been.  For the most open-hearted, transformations always leave us stronger, better, and - hopefully - more loving than before. And...

Mantle (noun): a cloak; an important role or responsibility that passes from one person to another. It’s natural for men to think that they own and nurture a Mantle of sorts to be passed from father to son.   In the past, passing the mantle ensured the survival of the tribe because it wasn’t just teaching skills so that the next generation would survive…it was teaching skills so that the next gene...