Episodes

August 2019. A warm Saturday night at a Spokane neighborhood fair. Ron Hauenstein is manning a booth alone when three 15-year-olds walk up. Before Ron can say a word, the girl asks him three questions in a row: "Is this where I come to get a dad?" "What do I have to do to get a dad?" "Will you be my dad?" Her father, she said, was "a druggie with seven kids who doesn't mean anything to him." That's the reality Ron has been staring down for a decade. This week on Dudes Without Dads, Joshua sits ...

What does it take to become the dad you never had — when the dad you did have was present but never really there? Scott Maudsley grew up as the second of four boys in southwest Michigan. His dad was a man of faith. He was in the house. He loved his kids. But when the business failed, bankruptcy hit, and the family moved into a tent on a campground just trying to survive — the emotional distance between Scott and his father only grew. By the time Scott was 18, he had lived in 14 different homes....

This is a Father's Day special unlike anything the Dudes Without Dads podcast has ever released. Joshua Brown flips the script. In this live, unscripted episode, he's not the interviewer — he's the one in the chair. Alongside him is William, his half-brother. Same dad. Different moms. Two men who grew up without a father, found each other through God's providence, and are now walking out reconciliation together. Gary Moritz steps in to steward the conversation — drawing out the pain, the trut...

What do you do when your father gives you the keys to his brand new truck — and four days later takes his own life? Cory was 30 years old, had just celebrated his birthday five days earlier, and had an 8-month-old daughter at home when his father died by suicide on May 15, 2010. In this raw and unforgettable episode, Joshua Brown sits down with his friend Cory for one of the most honest conversations the Dudes Without Dads podcast has ever had. This isn't just a story about loss. It's a story ...

What is a father wound? How do you heal it? And what does the Bible actually say a man is supposed to be? In this episode, Joshua Brown sits down with Robert Lewis — founder of Men's Fraternity, author of the bestselling Raising a Modern Day Knight, and co-founder of BetterMan — for one of the most important conversations in the Dudes Without Dads catalog. Robert has spent four decades in rooms full of men, opening the Bible and helping them figure out who they are. His work has reached over 5...

What happens when broken men try to build healthy marriages? In this powerful episode of Dudes Without Dads, Joshua Brown sits down with pastors, entrepreneurs, former gang members, ministry leaders, and restored husbands for an honest conversation about masculinity, marriage, emotional healing, fatherlessness, pride, insecurity, and spiritual leadership. These men openly discuss the destructive behaviors, emotional immaturity, anger, and identity struggles they carried into marriage — and ho...

Some of the strongest men you'll ever meet didn't grow up strong — they grew up surviving. Danny Spano grew up watching his Marine veteran father — a NASA engineer for Apollo 11 — come home from work in a rage. Locking himself in bedrooms in fear. Getting drop-kicked by the head of the hair. Watching his mother get beaten until he was big enough to step in and take the beatings himself. Visiting her in psychiatric wards after 16 electroshock treatments. Drinking and using drugs by age 11. Tha...

Most men aren't broken because they don't try hard enough — they're worn out trying to prove a worth that was never theirs to earn. In this conversation, Joshua Brown sits down with Eric Manly (founder of The Intentional Dad) to unpack the core lie that quietly wrecks men, marriages, and fatherhood: "My worth is something I have to prove." This isn't another how-to episode. It's an invitation to stop performing and start being fathered — by God first, so you can father your kids from overflow...

When Mark Koch"s father died at 26, he lost his moral compass. Without that anchor, everything spiraled into chaos. As a Hollywood producer, Mark achieved the dream — million-dollar deals, Lost in Space, a film that knocked Titanic out of first place. On the outside: success. On the inside: a double life fueled by cocaine, alcohol, and constant fear of exposure. This episode reveals what happens to a man when he loses his father in his most formative years without anyone to hold him account...

He made what he thought was a final decision. A vasectomy. Done. Case closed. No more children. But years later — after walking away from his government job, after paying off $84,000 in debt, after starting to build real estate across 13 states — Nick felt something shift. A conviction he could not shake. What if he had closed a door God wanted to keep open? What if his "no" was limiting what God wanted to do in his family? This is not a political episode. This is not a judgment episode. Th...

What does a boy do with what he discovers when no father is there to explain it? In this raw and honest roundtable, Joshua Brown sits down with five men — Caleb, Gabriel, Antoine, Cody, and Jason — to answer a question most men have never said out loud: where were you the first time you were exposed to pornography, and who did you go to afterward? From the projects to the woods of Tennessee, from late-night HBO to a father's hidden tape — every story is different, but the wound is the same. No g...

Brandon Petty grew up in a home most men would never recover from. Born to a teenage mother who was married six times by the age of 25, Brandon cycled through apartments, motel rooms, and relatives' couches throughout his childhood. He was raised primarily by women while the men in his life rotated in and out — most of them carrying their own unhealed wounds of addiction and abuse. Between the ages of 8 and 11, Brandon was sexually abused by three different people, including a stepfather who wa...

Dustin Lundy grew up faster than any kid should have to. His father — a former stockbroker born in 1934 — was financially brilliant and emotionally absent. His mother had affairs, abandoned the family for drugs, and left behind a household that 13-year-old Dustin quietly began running on his own. By the time his dad was dying of stage four colon cancer, Dustin was the one cleaning, caregiving, and holding things together — while quietly drowning in his own alcoholism and unprocessed trauma. H...

What does it actually mean to be a godly father — especially if you never had one? In this episode, host Joshua sits down with Kris Langham, co-founder of the Through the Word Bible app, to explore what Scripture teaches about godly fatherhood, father wounds, and how God specializes in breaking generational cycles. Kris challenges listeners to find a truly "perfect dad" in the Bible (spoiler: there isn't one), points to God as the only model of perfect fatherhood, and walks through the stunni...

Most men don’t struggle with discipline. They struggle with prayer. In this episode of Dudes Without Dads, Joshua sits down with pastor and church planter Ralph Moore to talk about why prayer feels forced, awkward, or unnecessary for many men — and what it’s quietly costing us in our marriages, leadership, identity, and fatherhood. If you grew up without a father, you probably learned how to survive. But you may have never learned how to pray. This conversation unpacks: Why prayer isn’t beggi...

What happens when a boy grows up believing he has no value? In this episode of Dudes Without Dads, Cliff Branham shares his journey from childhood abuse, anger, and addiction to forgiveness, healing, and becoming the father he never had. Cliff grew up with an abusive and absent father. That pain shaped his identity, led to rebellion, and fueled years of destructive behavior. But through surrender, discipleship, and understanding his identity in Christ, he broke the generational cycle. In this...

Alcoholism doesn’t start with you—but it can end with you. In this episode of Dudes Without Dads, Fred Sebring shares his raw story of growing up without a father, being surrounded by normalized drinking, and realizing later in life that alcohol had quietly become his coping mechanism. What followed was a breaking point—and a decision to end generational alcoholism for the sake of his wife, his kids, and his faith. This conversation is for any man asking: Why do I drink when life gets hard?Is...

In this episode of Dudes Without Dads, Joshua interviews Brian (Iron Sharpens Iron) about father wounds, discipleship, and becoming a godly father by first getting connected to the Perfect Father—God. You’ll learn why you can’t disciple your kids into a walk with Jesus if you’re not walking with Him yourself—and how affirmation, brotherhood, and intentional leadership change a home. What You’ll Learn Why you can’t give away what you don’t have spiritually The difference between teachin...

What happens when success, money, and achievement still leave you empty? In this powerful episode of Dudes Without Dads, Mike Wiggin shares his raw journey through father wounds, addiction, anger, and performance-based identity—and how grace completely transformed his life, faith, and fatherhood. Mike opens up about growing up with a performance-driven father, spiraling into drugs and rebellion, and the moment he realized he was becoming the very dad he never wanted to be. Through surrender, ...

Father wounds don’t just live in your mind—they live in your body. In this powerful conversation, Joshua Brown sits down with Justin Early, author of The Body Teaches the Soul, to unpack how absent, distracted, or destructive fathers shape men’s mental health, habits, addictions, and even physical responses like anxiety, anger, and shutdown. Justin explains why information alone doesn’t heal men—and how embodied practices like sleep, food, exercise, male friendship, and lament are essential f...

A candid roundtable discussion on demonic warfare, forgiveness, and spiritual authority. Spiritual warfare is real—and unforgiveness can keep you trapped. In this Dudes Without Dads roundtable, we unpack Luke 11, deliverance, and why demons “return” when a life is swept clean but not filled with the Holy Spirit. In this episode: Luke 11: where demons go “seeking rest” Real stories: prison, overdose, church hurt, missions Forgiveness, repentance, and closing spiritual doors Prayer as...

What do you do when your dad is drunk, absent, and ruins your childhood—then you grow up and realize you’re becoming just like him? In this raw conversation, Joshua Brown sits down with Gary Wilber to talk about growing up with an alcoholic father, the rage and embarrassment he carried for years, and the spiritual wake-up call that turned him from workaholic provider into a present, intentional dad. If you’re wrestling with father wounds, forgiveness, or feeling exhausted as a dad, this one is ...

What happens when a boy grows up fatherless, afraid, and surrounded by violence — and then God interrupts his story? This is Christian Rasmussen’s raw and unfiltered testimony of healing, identity, and manhood restored. In This Podcast: Growing up in chaos without a father Abuse, poverty, fear & generational brokenness The moment God showed up How Christian learned to walk as a man of integrity Breaking cycles for his future family The gospel in the simplest possible form ...

What happens when five men who grew up without fathers sit down to talk about forgiveness, healing, and becoming the dads they never had? You get one of the most powerful conversations we've ever recorded. In this roundtable episode, you'll hear: Antjuan's Story: Growing up in North Tulsa without a father, finding mentorship through a basketball coach, and discovering that community starts with the family. Gabriel's Journey: From seeking validation in gang life to finding true identity ...