Uncommon: The DadWork Podcast

Dennis has spent twenty years inside schools mentoring young men. Not as a school district employee. As an outsider who can say the things nobody else will say. The false masculinity being sold to boys — athletic dominance, sexual conquest, economic status. The pornography crisis — 85-90% of young men have seen it before age 14. More than 50% have seen violent pornography. And nobody's talking to...

Patriarch. Say it out loud. Notice what happens in your body. Some of you looked around to make sure nobody heard. Some of you felt a fire in your chest. Most of you felt both. Good. This episode is about taking that word back — from the culture that weaponized it, the ideology that turned it into a slur, and the pop culture machine that replaced the father who leads with the father who can't func...

He was nineteen years old, drunk, and coming down off cocaine after playing at a music festival in Minnesota. And then he heard a voice. Not out loud. In his chest. Like words being pressed into his heart. David. Where are you? The same words God said to Adam in the garden. In that moment — everything came to a hilt. The alcohol. The chaos. The broken home. The woundedness he'd been running from h...

700,000 men a year. 59,000 a month. 15,000 a week. 2,500 a day. 90 men every single hour. Almost two men every single minute. These are men with wives. With children. With families who need them. And it's "Pride" Month. And nobody's talking about this. This episode is my contribution to changing that. We talk about how we got here. The Industrial Revolution that pulled fathers from their homes and...

Jonathan Conrad was having panic attacks at work. Twins on the way. Stress through the roof. Work was his idol and he knew it. The only thing he knew to do was pray. Not because he was holy. Not because he had it figured out. Because it was the one prayer he remembered from childhood — and it was all he had. He started praying the rosary every day on the way to work. Out loud. Fingers on the steer...

Four months into having my son Theo — I stood up from meditation and found myself on the floor. Hypostatic blood pressure. Dangerously high. Heart rate through the roof. I hadn't been training. I told myself I didn't have time. That was the moment I understood — this isn't about vanity. An unfit dad is a liability to his family. Full stop. Here's the stat that stops me cold every time. Children of...

Om landed in Israel on October 5th, 2023. Two days later, the world changed. He was there. His family was there. His friends were there. And the man who had spent years learning to regulate his nervous system — who had meditated in caves in Europe, lived in India, done the deep work — was about to find out if any of it was real. It was. But it took months to process. Months of shaking. Months of f...

Frank had the balls to ask the question most men are too afraid to voice. Am I present enough? Am I focusing on the right things? Am I building a career at the expense of the years I'll never get back? This episode is for Frank. And it's for you. Because if you're asking the question — you already know something's off. The world is built to distract you. To show you everyone's highlight reel. To k...

Brennan Schlagbaum paid off $76,000 of non-mortgage debt in one year on a combined $92K income. Built financial freedom. Got his wife home. Moved across the country for his daughter's healthcare. And turned a spreadsheet into a national bestselling book. But this episode isn't really about money. It's about the emotional weight of providing. The story you inherited that money is scarce and hard an...

Love Languages aren’t fixing your marriage. They might be the reason it feels off. Not because they’re wrong… —but because they turn love into a checklist. Acts of service. Words of affirmation. Physical touch. Cool. But if you’re just “doing the reps” without presence, without intention… she feels it. And that’s where most men get stuck. You’re showing up. You’re doing what you think you’re suppo...

You’re working. Providing. Showing up. Trying to be a good husband. A good dad. And still… It feels like it’s not enough. So you do what most men do. You push harder. Work more. Try to fix it. And somehow that just creates more distance. Because underneath all of it is this belief: 👉 “I’m only worth what I can contribute.” And when that’s running the show… Everything gets twisted. Your wife’s emo...

You think you’re just a tired dad. Long day. Work. Kids. Life. So you sit down for a minute… grab your phone… scroll… …and somehow you feel worse. More tired. More irritated. More disconnected from your wife and your kids. Here’s the truth: You’re not tired. You’re addicted. In this episode, I break down what’s actually happening in your brain—and why so many dads feel drained, distracted, and che...

Most parents think they’re doing the right thing. Good school. Good grades. Follow the path. But step back and look at it honestly… Are you raising a child? Or feeding a system? In this conversation with Matt Boudreaux, we break down what’s actually happening inside modern education—and why more families are walking away from it. We talk about: Why the system rewards compliance, not thinking What...

Most couples don’t fall apart because they don’t love each other. They fall apart because they’re overwhelmed. Stress hijacks your nervous system. You stop thinking clearly. You stop connecting. And without realizing it—you turn on each other. This isn’t a communication problem. It’s not love languages. It’s not compatibility. It’s regulation. In this episode, I break down: Why stress turns you re...

Most men are overstimulated, reactive, and distracted. Not because they do not care. Because they have built a life where they never actually slow down enough to be present. In this conversation with Pat Barber of The Fathers Guild, we get into what it means to reclaim your time, your attention, and your nervous system as a father. We talk about: why journaling matters and why writing is different...

Most men don’t fail at fatherhood because they lack discipline. They fail because they’re carrying too much pressure with no real way to process it. So they do what men have always done: they suck it up, push through, bury it, and keep moving. But that pressure doesn’t disappear. It leaks. Into your marriage. Into your kids. Into your home. Into your body. In this episode, I break down why modern...

You don’t raise kids with advice. You raise them with inputs . Will Whitman (founder of Homegrown Lifting, husband, father of three) breaks down what it actually takes to be a present provider when the business never stops: hard stops, delegation, trust, and the rituals that let you walk through the door without bringing work home on your nervous system. We talk about: The “3:30 rule” and why it m...

Most men are under more pressure than ever. Bills. Marriage. Kids. Work. The constant noise of the modern world. And when that pressure builds, most of us do what men have always done: We suppress it. We push harder. White-knuckle it. Escape into work, alcohol, porn, the phone, the gym. But pressure doesn’t disappear. It leaks. Into our marriage. Into our kids. Into the home that’s supposed to be...

Divorce doesn’t just end a marriage. It can break a man’s identity, his finances, his access to his kids, and his will to live—especially when he tries to “handle it alone.” Ryan Michler (Order of Man) joins me for a real conversation about what men don’t talk about: how divorce actually happens, why so many guys feel blindsided, and what to do when your wife is signaling problems in a language yo...

You were built to survive the Ice Age. To protect your family from a 1,500-pound apex predator. But there is no bear anymore. There’s email. Bills. Deadlines. Notifications. Pressure. And your nervous system reacts like you’re fighting for your life. Every. Single. Day. The result? Chronic stress. Anxiety. Low libido. Short fuse. Emotional distance. A marriage that feels like roommates. Kids who f...

Most dads don’t blow it at home because they’re “bad dads.” They blow it because they walk through the door still in work mode —amped up, wired, carrying the whole day in their jaw, shoulders, chest… They bring that charge straight into their marriage and to their kids. In this episode, I’m joined by Mike Salemi (men’s coach + host of The King Within ) to break down the sleeper problem that’s quie...

You’re not lazy. You’re not broken. You’re just buried. Most men pushing through life are high-functioning, but hollow. Grinding. Providing. Burning out. They tape over the warning signs. Call it grit. Discipline. Sacrifice. But deep down… They feel it: — The distance in their marriage — The dullness of playing with their kids — The impulse to escape instead of be here This episode is about what h...

Most men don’t implode. They endure. They perform. They succeed—on paper. And inside? They’re quietly breaking down. This episode exposes the hidden pain of the high-functioning man: The guy who pays the bills, holds it together, and keeps showing up…but feels dead inside. Disconnected from his wife. Distant from his kids. Running on caffeine, screen dopamine, and silent stress. He’s not failing m...

You Can’t Lead Alone — And You Were Never Meant To You fight to be a good dad. You try to pursue your wife again. You work hard to get your life together. But it still feels like something’s off. Like you’re surrounded by the people you love— …but still feel alone. This episode with Steph Allen is a raw wake-up call for every man living life on autopilot—checking the boxes, numbing out, coasting i...

Most men think they’re doing “okay.” But the truth? We’re living in Pottinger’s experiment —and our kids are the fourth generation. Physical, emotional, and spiritual degeneration is happening all around us. And no one’s sounding the alarm loud enough. In this episode, I unpack: Where the real breakdown started—and it’s deeper than feminism How passivity, processed food, and distraction are destro...