Needed to Hear That!

Accountability usually sounds like something that happens when you've screwed up. But what if we've been thinking about it the wrong way? This week on Needed to Hear That, Chris and Chaz talk about what real accountability looks like, to ourselves, to the people we love, and to the people who depend on us. Chris opens up about places in his own life where he's struggled to hold others...

Enjoy some of the best moments from this summer's episodes of Needed To Hear That. Chaz and Chris will be back next week with a brand new episode.

When was the last time you were actually bored? Not scrolling your phone. Not watching something in the background. Not checking social media, shopping, working, gambling, eating or finding another way to occupy your attention. Just… nothing to do. This week on Needed to Hear That, Chris and Chaz talk about why boredom has become increasingly difficult for us to tolerate and why learning to live w...

Who takes care of the people who take care of everyone else? This week on Needed to Hear That, Chaz and Chris talk about caregiving, not just as a profession, but as something almost all of us will be called to do at some point in our lives. The conversation begins with grief and the loss of grandparents, including Chaz reflecting on caring for his grandmother at the end of her life and realizing...

What does it actually mean to be authentic? We hear some version of “just be yourself” all the time. The problem is, sometimes figuring out who “yourself” actually is can be the hard part. In Episode 30, Chaz and Chris dig into authenticity, what it looks like in recovery, therapy, relationships, spirituality and everyday life, and why trying to be authentic can sometimes become another expectatio...

When did we decide that play was just for kids? This week on Needed to Hear That , Chaz and Chris explore the role that imagination, creativity and play have in our mental and emotional lives—and why we tend to abandon them as we get older. Chaz shares how storytelling and guided imagination can help us encounter parts of ourselves that we've pushed away, while Chris reflects on parenting, scr...

Chaz and Chris explore what it really means to have compassion for someone who is struggling — especially when their struggle looks different from your own. Chaz reflects on being invited to speak at a Catholic novena about supporting people healing from addiction and explains why his message centered on one idea: the person struggling with addiction is not separate from us. We’ve all felt pulled...

What does it actually mean to help someone? Chris and Chaz start with the work of the Eleven Foundation and the complicated reality of rebuilding a life after treatment. Chaz draws on his experience in social work and case management to explain why helping someone isn't as simple as handing them a list of resources. Food, shelter, recovery, mental health—our needs are deeply personal, and mean...

Starting something new is hard. Starting over can feel even harder. This week, Chaz and Chris explore why taking that first step back toward something healthy can feel so overwhelming. Whether it's returning to recovery after a relapse, finding a therapist, joining a support group, going back to church, or picking up a habit that's been good for you in the past, the hardest part is often c...

What if the most meaningful moments in life aren't the big ones? This week, Chaz and Chris reflect on the places and routines that quietly shape us. What begins as a conversation about a family vacation to Table Rock Lake turns into a deeper discussion about slowing down, finding peace in simplicity, and creating spaces where people feel safe to be themselves. They explore why so many of us co...

This week, Chaz and Chris welcome Morgan Coyner, Executive Vice President of Addiction Professionals of North Carolina, for an honest conversation about attachment theory and why our earliest relationships continue shaping the way we love, trust, grieve, and recover. Together, they unpack secure and insecure attachment, childhood experiences that quietly shape adulthood, the biology behind connect...

This week, Chaz and Chris start with Blues hockey, childhood memories, and parenting before stumbling into one of their most meaningful conversations yet. They explore the stories we tell ourselves, why comparison steals so much joy, and how the way we speak to ourselves often becomes the loudest voice in the room. From Charlie's love of video games to the curiosity we lose as adults, the disc...

In this episode of Needed to Hear That , Chris and Chaz unpack the ways comparison quietly shapes our lives—from social media and money to parenting, relationships, careers, and self-worth. Why do we assume everyone else has it figured out? Why do we look at other people's highlight reels and conclude we're somehow falling behind? The conversation explores how comparison can leave us feeli...

On this episode of Needed To Hear That , Chaz and Chris explore a question that sits at the heart of healing, recovery, faith, and human connection: What makes people feel safe enough to be vulnerable? Fresh off a trip to Denver, Chaz reflects on visiting a recovery community that helped shape the vision for Underground and sparked a conversation about consistency, belonging, and why some spaces i...

On this episode of Needed To Hear That , Chaz and Chris tackle a question that seems simple on the surface but gets more complicated the longer you sit with it: How do you know when you're doing too much? The conversation explores the tension between ambition and burnout, service and self-neglect, and why so many people feel simultaneously overwhelmed and convinced they aren't doing enough...

On this episode of Needed To Hear That, Chaz and Chris are joined by therapist, educator, and Learn to Live founder Matt Bauersachs for a conversation about mentorship, purpose, therapy, recovery, and the people who shape who we become. The conversation starts as a discussion about social work school and professional development and quickly turns into a deeper exploration of what it means to truly...

On this episode of Needed To Hear That, Chaz and Chris dive into grief, mortality, resilience, and the uncomfortable reality that literally anything can happen at any time. The conversation starts with the sudden death of NASCAR star Kyle Busch and evolves into something deeper: how humans try to make sense of tragedy, why sudden loss feels so destabilizing, and what happens when grief collides wi...

On this episode of Needed To Hear That, Chaz and Chris dive into the fear, guilt, and shame that can come with “starting over.” What begins as a conversation about meditation and mindfulness slowly unfolds into something much deeper — why people struggle to return to the things that once helped them feel whole. Using the concept of the “abstinence violation effect,” the conversation explores the a...

This week on Needed To Hear That, the conversation starts with wrestling conventions, anime communities, Buff Bagwell’s amputated leg, and Mick Foley nostalgia… before slowly unfolding into something much deeper: why so many of us feel stuck. Chris and Chaz unpack the pressure to constantly improve, achieve, evolve, and “figure it out” — and how comparison quietly steals our ability to recognize g...

On this episode of Needed To Hear That, Chaz and Chris start off talking about surviving a “bachelor week,” hockey goalies, meditation groups, and the chaos of bouncing between golf tournaments, OTB's, trivia nights. They eventually land in a much deeper conversation about codependency, boundaries, and why so many people struggle to let other people own their own emotions. They unpack what cod...

Title:What Actually Recharges You? Show Notes:On this episode of Needed to Hear That, Chaz and Pondoff start off dodging storms and talking about hail damage—but quickly land somewhere deeper: burnout, compassion fatigue, and the quiet question a lot of people don’t know how to answer...what actually helps you feel like yourself again? They unpack the difference between real self-care and the wate...

Today on Needed to Hear That, Chris and Chaz talk about spirituality, recovery, humility, and the parts of healing that can feel genuinely terrifying. After a trip to Asheville for the Addiction Professionals of North Carolina conference, the conversation moves from treatment work and the helpers who keep showing up, to the danger of building our own beliefs by tearing someone else’s down. They ta...

In this episode of Needed to Hear That, Chaz and Pondoff get into what it really means to take young people seriously. The conversation starts with trauma, recovery, and the power of hope, then moves into the emotional world of adolescents, where heartbreak, rejection, friendship, identity, and social pressure can feel absolutely massive...because to them, they are. Instead of brushing that off as...

In this episode, Chris and Chaz start with the very real aftermath of Chaz and Holly’s car accident, then turn that moment into something bigger: a conversation about why stories matter. They talk about family stories, the people who make us feel seen, the way self-compassion can change the stories we tell about ourselves, and why testimony, spirituality, and recovery all depend on honest human co...

Some commitments are loud, but the ones that change us most are often quiet. In this conversation, Chaz and Chris reflect on sobriety, grace, and the small daily choices that keep us pointed toward the life we want to live. What unfolds is a grounded look at how real change happens—not through perfection or speed, but through ordinary acts of returning, again and again, to what matters most. They...