Leading Through Loss

Thank you Harriet Corvine , That Woman Who Writes Things , and many others for tuning into my conversation with Damon Mitchell ! Damon Mitchell is a coach for men. He’s one of the few people on Substack whose comments consistently make me stop and think, so I asked him to sit down with me and talk. This is that conversation. Damon got sober in Costa Rica after seven months of drinking and drugs to...

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.mandown.tools

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.mandown.tools

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.mandown.tools

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.mandown.tools

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.mandown.tools

This episode is about what happens when a family loses a son and a brother to suicide after a long, exhausting fight with mental illness. In this episode of the Man Down podcast, Jason sits down with Eric Fulmer , a husband, father of six, and technology leader who lost his 23 year old son, Nathaniel, in April of 2024. For nearly a year before Nathaniel died, Eric and his family were living inside...

Grab your Kleenex. Or if you’re feeling especially macho, get ready to pretend there’s something in your eye. This episode is not about staying positive or pushing through. It is about what happens when a man spends years fighting to see his kids and then gets diagnosed with a very aggressive form of cancer while that fight is still ongoing. In this episode of Man Down , Jason sits down with Adam...

Most men aren’t taught how to grieve. They’re taught how to hold it together. Get up. Go to work. Handle your responsibilities. Don’t fall apart. And absolutely don’t make it anyone else’s problem. In this episode, Jason sits down with Tom Golden, a therapist who’s spent decades working almost exclusively with grieving men, to talk about what actually happens to men after a major loss. And why so...

What happens when loss doesn’t just break your heart—but permanently changes who you are? In this deeply honest conversation, Jason MacKenzie sits down with Chris Coulter , founder of The Mentor Well and creator of Lifeline Parenting Workshops , to explore what life actually looks like ten years after the suicide of a child . Together, they move beyond platitudes about “healing” and into the lived...

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.mandown.tools

What happens to a person when the place that’s supposed to keep them safe… isn’t? In this raw conversation, Jonathan Fennell opens up about growing up in chaos, living with hypervigilance, loving a brother in crisis, and trying to build a life while carrying trauma that never fully lets go. EPISODE SUMMARY In this episode of Leading Through Loss , Jason sits down with Jonathan Fennell , whose chil...

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.mandown.tools

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.mandown.tools

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.mandown.tools

When Phil Cohen ’s 14-year-old son disappeared at sea, the world watched the largest civilian Coast Guard search in history unfold. For seven days he lived in the space between hope and hell—and nothing in his life would ever be the same. In this raw, unfiltered conversation, Phil (“The Grief Guy”) opens up about what really happened, how grief shattered him, and the moment everything changed. Thi...

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.mandown.tools

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.mandown.tools

Lenny Hunt’s story begins with an ordinary moment every parent knows—a quick glance into the backseat to share a smile with his son. Seconds later, both of his boys were gone. What followed wasn’t healing. It was survival. For years, Lenny lived in the wreckage—haunted by guilt, drowning in self-punishment, and convinced he didn’t deserve to be alive. But slowly, through heartbreak, faith, and bru...

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.mandown.tools

Most men think resilience means staying tough. Pushing through. Holding it together no matter what. But what if that’s not resilience at all? Professor Jo Clarke has spent over two decades working in some of the toughest environments imaginable—the British prison system. She’s seen what trauma does to people, and she’s helped countless men learn to thrive after it. Then life tested everything she...

Episode Summary Most men are taught to tough it out. Jacque Ecuyer tried that, and it nearly cost him everything. In this raw and deeply honest conversation, I sit down with Jacque to talk about the pain of losing his parents, years of bullying, addiction, and the moment he finally said, “I need help.” What followed wasn’t just recovery. It was reinvention. Jacque shares how vulnerability became h...

Too many good men die, not just physically, but emotionally, because no one ever taught us how to handle pain. In this raw, unfiltered first episode of The Man Down Project , Jason McKenzie lays it all on the table: the suicide of his first wife, Cindy; the tragic death of his 19-year-old daughter, Chloe; and the years of drinking, denial, and destruction that followed. But this isn’t a sob story....

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Math teacher and expatriate dad Aaron Sorensen joins me from Taipei to talk about life overseas and the day everything changed when his son, Lucas, died. Aaron shares the kind, bright kid Lucas was (AP Calc, baseball, board-game strategist) and how crushing pressure and a dangerous coping behavior led to tragedy. He takes us into the immediate aftermath: the call at school, the hours waiting at ho...