This week we explore our  own encounters with how traditional expectations both elevate and imprison, leading to breakdown before breakthrough. The conversation explores:

 * "What expectations about manhood did you inherit that nobody taught you how to actually embody?"
 * "When have you felt most trapped by the very roles that were supposed to give you strength and purpose?"
 * "What emotions have you been told a 'real man' shouldn't feel – and what has that cost you in your relationships?"
 * "If you could speak honestly to your younger self about the lies he believes about what makes a man valuable, what would you say?"

Goodpain Season 02 Episode No. 02 – Becoming a Real Man & The Roles We Learn

This week Tiffany and Tyler sit down with the author of Hold My Hand, Mama, A touching story that walks readers through the circle of life from a daughter's first steps to her mother's last and beyond. Gabrielle was the recipient of the Mom’s Choice Awards® Gold and shares her story with Goodpain and what brought her to write Hold My Hand, Mama. 

Author's Links:

Hold My Hand, Mama Website [https://www.holdmyhandmama.com/]

Amazon: Order Hold My Hand, Mama [https://a.co/d/6GZ71Nm]

Holiday Special Episode: Interview with Gabrielle Martin – "Hold My Hand, Mama"

Jeremy and Tyler open Season 02 of Goodpain with an overarching discussion of masculinity, how they arrived at the topic and introduce the importance of Initiation Rites, and what happens in their absence. 

The discussion moves from Aboriginal Australia to sub-saharan Africa for wisdom involving of masculine energy. Ultimately, Jeremy & Tyler share their own formative stories around masculinity as an entry into this broad topic that will be explored more thoroughly in future episodes. 

Goodpain Season 02 Episode No. 01 – Introduction to Masculine & Role of Initiation

We've reduced civic duty to voting, but community emerges from deliberate cultivation of beliefs, attitudes, and rituals practiced between solitude and collective life.

Community isn't manufactured through programs or proximity. It emerges when we practice civic arts we've abandoned: endurance, gratitude, and fierce presence.

Sparks + Embers Episode No. 019: Community as a Flowing Gift & Civic Duty

The patterns that destroy community aren't random failures or unfortunate side effects. They're the logical result of certain assumptions about value, scale, efficiency, and human nature – assumptions so embedded in modern life that they're nearly invisible. We've built systems that systematically undermine the very conditions that make community possible, all while telling ourselves we're optimizing for human flourishing.

Before we can explore what makes community possible – the gift circulation, the appropriate scale, the life movement, the wisdom that sustains human connection across generations – we must name what makes it impossible. Not to dwell in critique, but to face honestly: these aren't problems that need tweaking. They're violations of community's fundamental architecture, and they require us to see clearly what we're up against.

Sparks + Embers Episode No. 018 - Community Series Prologue: The 9 Problems Undermining Community Foundations

In this final installment of the Apprenticeship Model for Leadership series, we talk about Generational Maintenance, synthesizing all domains for lifelong practice within a framework of intellectual humility and twenty-year thinking. 

We also introduce the model for our next series, the Northern Arapaho's Four Hills of Life Movement. In this context we use the model to express some diuscssion about leadership and preview our next series about Community and what it means to live together.

Sparks + Embers Episode No. 017: Apprenticeship Wisdom & Series Wrap

Different cultures have developed sophisticated approaches to leadership, mentorship, and wisdom transmission that may conflict with Western apprenticeship models. The challenge is learning from diverse traditions without imposing our frameworks or appropriating sacred practices. The bridge-builders themselves face this as they share knowledge with global researchers while maintaining the cultural integrity of their practices, in collaboration with the natural world and the wisdom it offers.

Sparks + Embers Episode No. 016: Apprenticeship from Natural Wisdom, On Forgetting and Remembering

Season 1 of Goodpain has wrapped and we thank everyone who came along with us. We are in production on Season 2 and introduce the topic in this episode. 

Goodpain will return with Season 2 toward the end of October, early November in 2025. See you then!

Goodpain Episode No. 013: Thank you for Season 1 and Preview of Season 2

This week we discuss the reality of our present moment: what does it mean to self-govern through the lens of the Apprenticeship Model for Leadership in the public sphere. We read an excerpt of this week's Kindling feature, focusing on the demands of us as citizen leaders.

Article Summary: Social change research reveals multiple valid approaches to community transformation. Some situations require confrontational organizing; others benefit from collaborative coalition-building; still others need policy-focused advocacy. The complexity deepens when addressing historical trauma and systemic oppression that affects different communities differently. The bridge-builders face this challenge as they work with tourism development and government documentation while maintaining traditional practices. How do we apply universal principles while respecting specific contexts and needs?

Sparks + Embers Episode No. 015: Social Stewardship & Self Governance (Apprenticeship Leadership)

In this quick bonus episode, Tyler shares a conversation with a special guest. 

Goodpain Episode No. 012: Season 01 Bonus No. 2: Guest Interview

Goodpain Podcast is an invitation to reclaim the space for honest, candid conversations about our struggles, about not knowing, about the wisdom found simply in enduring.. Like the ancient tribes, gathering around a fire to share hard-won wisdom, we'll talk about life's true intensities: the raw realities of parenting, the relentless demands of careers, the shattering impact of tragedy, the quiet burden of pain, and the unexpected moments of joy that flicker in between. Because whether your struggle was a sudden storm or a slow erosion, your story is meaningful. 

Tyler Martin

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