Voices for Voices®

A prescription can be sitting at the pharmacy, but still be out of reach. I’m Justin Alan Hayes, and I’m putting a spotlight on what happens when prior authorization, insurance approval, and pharmacy systems collide and the patient pays the price, sometimes with their mental health. I walk you through a real timeline: the missing prior authorization notice that should have hit my prescriber immedi...

My prescription didn’t change, my doctor didn’t disappear, and the pharmacy had the medication ready, yet I still hit a wall that left me without a key psychotropic med for a day. The wall was insurance prior authorization, and the price tag on the other side was $376 for a 30-day supply. I’m telling this story because it’s not rare, and because medication access should never hinge on a hidden for...

Two big events in one day can feel like a victory or a minefield, depending on what your brain and body are carrying. We’re Justin Alan Hayes and Voices for Voices, and we’re unpacking a recent weekend that held both joy and pressure: celebrating a friend’s 40 years sober and drug-free, then showing up for a child’s recital with all the crowds, noise, lights, and unpredictability that can trigger...

Forty years sober sounds like a headline, but it’s actually thousands of small choices stacked on top of each other. We met up with Don Matis Jr. out at Hudson Springs Park on a bright day to celebrate a bright kind of win: four decades free from alcohol and drugs. Don doesn’t romanticize recovery. He talks about how sobriety is built minute by minute, how quickly “just one” can turn into a full r...

A stopwatch in a classroom can teach a lesson nobody intended: your value equals your speed. We get personal about how timed quizzes in elementary school planted stress, anxiety, and a “finish first” mindset that followed us into adulthood, even when the grades never depended on the seconds. If you’ve ever felt your heart race during a test, or judged yourself because someone else turned their pap...

We spend so much time scanning other people for flaws that we forget to check the one relationship that shapes every single day: how we treat ourselves. Justin Alan Hayes gets real about self-talk, compassion, and the thin line between healthy pride and empty ego, then calls out how “harmless” gossip and people-watching can quietly train us to be harsher on ourselves than we’d ever be on anyone el...

Mother’s Day can expose the quiet cracks in a home: the assumptions, the missed signals, the “I meant well” moments that still land like neglect. We sit down with David Solomon, a new dad navigating newborn life, and he doesn’t sugarcoat what he’s learning. Watching his wife carry the physical toll of feeding and caring for a baby reframes everything, especially the way our culture dismisses stay-...

Episode 500 is coming up fast, and I wanted to slow down for a minute and talk about what it really takes to keep a mission-driven show going. Voices for Voices exists because you share it, talk about it, and help other people find it. I explain where you can watch and listen across platforms, why word of mouth matters more than any algorithm, and how our nonprofit work stays sustainable through s...

A family photo in front of the Disneyland castle turns into something stranger: a whispered “Hello,” a tall man with golden hair and pointed ears, and then he’s gone. We read and react to the “Venus Man of Disneyland” folklore from our Mythical Creatures Around The World page and unpack why stories like this travel so fast, especially when they tap into shared wonder, fear, and the need to make se...

Practice sounds ordinary until you notice how much of your life depends on it. We dig into the difference between practicing and not practicing, starting with the kinds of incentives that got many of us moving as kids, including the Pizza Hut Book It era where reading at home actually came with a reward. But the real point is bigger: practice is how you build competence, and competence is how you...

Choose Goals That Are Yours, Not Someone Else's | Episode 496 Every day you wake up, you are already moving closer to something. The uncomfortable part is naming it: are we getting closer to our dream, or closer to inactivity that feels safe because it is familiar? We sit with that question and keep returning to it from different angles, because clarity is not a lightning bolt, it is a practi...

Your Psychiatrist Can't Help If You Don't Tell Them This | Episode 495 A missing refill can feel like a personal failure, even when it’s really a system problem. We’ve both felt that sudden drop in the stomach when the pharmacy record says one thing, the clinic says another, and your pill bottle says you have one day left. That kind of uncertainty can spike anxiety fast, especially when...

We're Pushing 500 Episodes - Here's Everything We Do | Episode 494 Almost nobody needs another vague “mental health resource” they need a clear path to action. We go live with a straightforward update on Voices For Voices: what we are, how we work, and how you can actually find us and support the mission without guessing or digging through links. We talk about the Voices For Voices TV Sh...

Clean Bed, Safer Body with Bedding That Cares | Episode 493 A hospital bed can look clean and still be a revolving door for pathogens. That’s the unsettling premise behind our conversation with Rich Cordero, who founded Betting That Cares to tackle one of the most ignored parts of healthcare: what happens on the mattress, day after day, when someone can’t simply get up and walk away. We talk throu...

Dyslexia And Autism Don't Cancel Out Your Gifts | They Shape Them | Episode 492 Autism can change how we process the world, but it doesn’t change our worth, and it definitely doesn’t erase our ability to create, lead, and build something that matters. We sit down with David Solomon to talk about life on the spectrum, the pushback that comes with being misunderstood, and why calling autism “a...

9 Years Sober and Still Getting Pressure: Here's How I Stay Steady | Episode 491 Friday nights can reveal what we’re really living for. Justin Alan Hayes gets candid about the mindset he carried 20 to 25 years ago, when weekends revolved around alcohol, pre-gaming, and chasing the next high, and how different life feels now with nearly nine years of sobriety on the horizon. With Voices for Vo...

She Carried the Shame for 30 Years | Now Ellen's Demanding Justice | Episode 490 Silence protects offenders, not survivors, and Ellen is finished staying quiet. She joins us to share what happened when she was raped at 14, how blame and disbelief followed her for decades, and why speaking up now feels like a form of protection for the next person in line. We talk honestly about what it’s like...

The Grass Got Cut And So Did My Stress | Episode 489 Some days, the biggest mental health breakthrough is finishing a basic chore. Justin Alan Hayes shares a raw “days in the life” update that starts with the mission behind Voices for Voices and ends with a surprisingly powerful story about mowing the lawn while living with ongoing mental challenges. We talk through what it takes to keep a mental...

Flashbacks During Spring Chores? Here's What's Actually Happening | Episode 488 A messy yard can be more than a weekend chore. Sometimes it’s a trigger, a mirror, and a mental health workout all at once. Justin Alan Hayes shares what happened when spring weather turned his hilltop lawn into a tall, waterlogged project and why the first mow of the year brought back anxiety, perfectionism,...

Safe Enough to Dream | Safe Enough to Build | Episode 487 If you’ve ever felt torn between “do more” and “I’m running on empty,” this one is for you. I’m Justin Alan Hayes, and I’m sharing what it looks like to build Voices for Voices while protecting mental health, managing stress, and refusing to let burnout decide the pace. The goal is big, but the strategy stays human: community, consistency,...

When You're Waiting for Bad News | How to Show Up for Yourself | Episode 486 Some days don’t just feel “busy” or “off” they feel heavier in your body and louder in your mind. We talk honestly about why certain days of the week can trigger stress and anxiety, from the Sunday scaries and workplace burnout to that sinking feeling when you know a tough appointment is coming. If you’ve ever felt y...

Why a Puppy's Medication Sent Me Back to the Worst Day | Episode 485 A syringe shouldn’t be able to time-travel, but sometimes it does. I’m connecting a few moments that still live in my nervous system: my grandma’s declining health, her move through care facilities, the day she kept saying “we need to get out of here,” and the shock of being asked to hold her still while staff gave her a sho...

Sexual Assault Awareness Needs Real Action, Not Just Promises | Episode 484 We’ve got a lot of “special days” on the calendar, but I keep coming back to one question: why do we wait for a date to care? I walk through a handful of April awareness days and holidays and use them as a mirror for how we live the other 364 days, from health and family to the environment and the way we treat one another...

Novocaine Brain And The Accidental Kardashian Vibe | Episode 483 A cracked filling doesn’t sound like a big story until you’ve lived through the years that lead up to it. I’m Justin, and I’m talking candidly about what happens when mental health and major depression knock out your routines, including brushing, dental cleanings, and basic maintenance. When I finally got back into the dentist chair...

When Technology Gives Disabled Artists a Real Voice | Episode 482 A commercial stopped me in my tracks: a young girl onstage making music with her eyes. Not metaphorically, literally. That moment sent me straight back to my experience with a special needs orchestra where musicians use iPads and GarageBand to play songs with confidence, structure, and joy. It also reminded me why Voices for Voices...