Silence can look like strength, but it can also be a warning sign. We sit with a painful reality: a lot of men have been trained to perform confidence on the outside while carrying fear, grief, shame, and exhaustion alone. That training doesn’t just shape individual lives; it spills into marriages, parenting, friendships, and the wider church community when “I’m fine” becomes a lifestyle instead of a moment.

We’re joined by Dr. Terry Allen and PJ Dunn to unpack why men don’t talk and why it’s hurting us clinically, emotionally, and spiritually. We connect the dots between unprocessed stress and real health outcomes like anxiety, depression, sleep problems, high blood pressure, burnout, and substance dependency. We also name what often gets missed: men’s depression may show up as irritability, emotional numbness, overworking, isolation, and anger, and hidden anxiety can look like constant overthinking, perfectionism, and an inability to relax.

Then we pivot to the way forward. We talk about learning honesty, finding safe community, and knowing when it’s time to reach out for professional counseling. We challenge the false choice between prayer and therapy, and we end with a simple charge: check on your silent soldiers, tell the truth, and guard your heart by tending to it. If this message hits close to home, subscribe, share it with someone you love, and leave a review so more people can find the support they need.

A smiling pregnancy can still be full of fear, and a “healthy” birth can still be followed by a mental health crash. We sit down with Pastor Jamie Bruning and Pastor Todd Bruning for an honest, personal conversation about maternal mental health, postpartum depression, and what support actually looks like when the house gets quiet and the days blur together from exhaustion.

Jamie shares what it was like to carry deep anxiety while loving pregnancy, then hit a wall after their son arrived early: feeding challenges, severe sleep deprivation, and a loneliness that made even basic meals feel overwhelming. We talk about why postpartum depression often goes unreported, how guilt and self-blame keep parents silent, and why “bounce back” culture harms mothers and families.

Then the story widens into parenting a child with special needs and navigating an autism spectrum disorder diagnosis. Todd and Jamie explain what helped them stay connected as partners, why a safe space matters more than unsolicited advice, and how therapies such as occupational therapy, speech therapy, applied behavior analysis, and food therapy became practical bridges for communication. We also get specific about community care: respite, rest, listening without fixing, and consistently checking on caregivers.

If you know a new parent, a caregiver, or a family in your faith community who is carrying more than they admit, this conversation is for you. Subscribe, share it with someone who may need it, and leave a review with the one kind of support you wish more people offered.

Leadership isn’t a title you receive. It’s a path you practice, often years before you can name it. For our Women’s History Month conversation, we sit down with four remarkable women whose work spans higher education, family life education, ministry and chaplaincy, and music education. Together, we trace the moments that shaped their sense of calling and the mentors who helped them keep going when the road got complicated.

We talk about what it means to lead when you’re “the first” and there are no models to copy. You’ll hear honest stories about navigating patriarchal expectations in church spaces, pushing through academic gatekeeping during the tenure process, and learning how to offer your gifts even when they don’t match what others expect leadership to look like. Along the way, we keep coming back to faith, purpose, and the everyday disciplines that build confidence: showing up, serving, learning in public, and staying open to course corrections.

If you’re wrestling with your own next step, you’ll also hear practical advice for young women: leave the nest, try the thing, build a circle of people who encourage you, and trust that growth happens in the doing. We wrap with a lightning round on influential books and the women who inspired each guest, plus a reminder that the true measure of leadership is the lives we impact.

Subscribe to 1 Soul Matters, share this with a friend who needs a nudge forward, and leave a review with the mentor who made a difference in your life.