In this candid conversation, Van Sedita, Nate Phillips, and John Molina-Moore take on men’s health through stories of stress, faith, and vulnerability. What starts with beard lotion jokes quickly opens into a serious and deeply honest exchange about how men process—or avoid processing—emotions.

John shares how stress physically manifested as back pain despite being in the best shape of his life, revealing how the body often tells the truth before we do. Nate connects that experience to learned childhood patterns and “small-t” trauma—those early lessons about when it was or wasn’t safe to rest, cry, or fail. Together they trace how these unexamined coping habits—sports, work, over-productivity—carry into adulthood and can quietly become poisons instead of medicine.

From there, the discussion turns spiritual. Nate reframes the Parable of the Talents with a subtle but transformative “but” in the text, shifting it from a story of punishment and performance to one of grace and relational worth. The group links that insight to the modern pressure for men to constantly prove value—physically, professionally, and even spiritually.

By the end, the episode expands outward: from childhood wounds to cultural masculinity, from personal stress to systemic harm. John names the reality that men commit most acts of violence, and the hosts wonder how unprocessed pain feeds that pattern. Van asks whether framing the issue as “men’s health” is even the right lens, or whether we should talk instead about human wholeness and the undervalued work of nurture.

Through humor, humility, and faith, the episode lands on a hopeful note: that men’s health begins not with dominance or denial, but with balance—between inner child and adult self, between productivity and presence, between masculine and feminine energies that make a whole life sacred.

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We envision a world where design and religion work together to spread love, empathy, and charity faster than divisiveness, selfishness, and hate. To achieve this, we aim to bring the stories of those driving this change—both big and small—into the spotlight, allowing ideas for positive transformation to spread quickly and reach those who need them most.

Nate is the Head Pastor at Red Clay Creek Presbyterian Church https://rccpc.org/

Van is a Service Designer and Illustrator, and his work can be found at https://www.vansheacreative.com/