Education

Human School

We’ve been taught everything except how to be human. In a world obsessed with output, Human School is where we study what happens within.

Hosted by Miles Adcox, this podcast was born from a journal entry during a breakdown –– a reminder that struggle isn’t weakness; it’s instruction. Through raw conversations with world-class experts, therapists, and thinkers, Human School reframes pain as purpose, productivity as presence, and leadership as inner clarity.

If you are navigating personal growth, emotional health, and self-discovery, you are in the right place.

Welcome to Human School.

Latest Episodes:

The Courage to Be Yourself with Skylar Gray May 28, 2026

Show notes

Have you ever felt like becoming quieter was the only way to survive being too much?

What if the chaos you chased and the life you almost missed were both pointing you home?

Skylar Grey is a five-time Grammy-nominated artist, SpotifyBillions Club member, and one of the most distinctive voices of the last two decades. Known for her work with Eminem and Dr. Dre, she sits down with Miles Adcox to talk about the parts of her story the highlight reel never shows: a 1,500-person Wisconsin town, being told she was too much, a friendship breakup she never forgot, and a teacher who said music wasn't a career — the last day she went back to class.

Skylar opens up about retreating to an Oregon cabin afterher record deal fell apart, how that silence gave her "Love the Way You Lie," and the fears that kept her shrinking even as the world grew louder. She shares what it took to believe she deserved real love, why she's letting the wild little girl back out, and how Wasted Potential became a story she wrote for herself — one that might save someone else.

In this conversation, you'll learn:

How childhood fractures quietly shape your adult life
How being "too much" can become what makes youunforgettable
How to find yourself after the world trains it out of you
How to tell the difference between influence and inspiration
How burnout signals you've drifted from your own voice
How fear of criticism shrinks your art and your life
How to know when you've earned the right to want what you want
How polarizing art finds the people who need it most
How to write through darkness without forcing a resolution
How to build a life that makes the work worth doing

The conversations we have on Human School are shaped by the work happening every day at Onsite. For more than 45 years, Onsite has helped people slow down, get honest about their stories, and experience meaningful change through world-class therapeutic experiences. Learn more at experienceonsite.com.

Follow Human School:

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Instagram - @humanschoolofficial

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TikTok - @humanschoolofficial

What We Discuss:

00:00:00 – Meet Skylar Grey

00:02:19 – What it feels like to be truly seen

00:04:25 – Turning 40 and why now was the time to tell her story

00:06:49 – Growing up in a small town

00:10:48 – The childhood fractures that still live in her

00:13:50 – Carrying the past into the music industry

00:19:12 – A Celtic harpist mom and a barbershop quartet dad

00:21:36 – "Generations" – the duo that started her career

00:24:11 – Going solo at 12 and buying her first piano

00:27:18 – Influenced vs. inspired

00:34:24 – Tunnel vision work ethics

00:41:30 – The teacher who said "music isn't a career"

00:44:16 – Running off stage in tears & what the crowdfelt in it

00:47:09 – Her message to those who feel like they don't belong

00:51:29 – The grocery store pick-up line & dream partner

00:54:03 – "Love the Way You Lie" Origin Story

01:05:11 – How Eminem's "Stan" changed everything

01:11:53 – What setbacks taught her

01:14:16 – The burnout she didn't see coming

01:16:18 – Why success scared her & fear held her back

01:28:16 – "Bubble Grunge" Era

01:33:54 – The story behind "Bruises"

01:37:06 – Her journey to the "That'll Be Fine" girl

01:38:48 – What the younger Skylar would think of all this

01:41:08 – Meet Time - the AI stuffed animal voiced by Skylar Grey

Hugging the World Back Together with Tim Harris May 21, 2026

Show notes

What if the most powerful thing you could offer the world wasn't your résumé or achievements, but simply your presence and a hug?

Tim Harris is an entrepreneur, philanthropist, Special Olympics athlete, author of The Book of Hugs, host of the Big Heart Talks with Tim podcast, and founder of Tim's Big Heart Foundation. Raised in Albuquerque, Tim built a life around one belief: love, kindness, and connection can change everything. He ran Tim's Place: Breakfast, Lunch & Hugs, greeting every guest at the front door — all while living with Down syndrome, not in spite of who he is, but because of it.

In this conversation, Tim shares about his seven steps to an awesome life, what he told a worried father whose baby would be born with Down syndrome, and why hugs are the best medicine in the world. Miles and Tim talk about their love of country music and feature a special performance of a country classic. These new best friends cover it all before Tim’s 5 o’clock flight home.

In this conversation, you'll learn:

How to be the light instead of complaining about the darkness
How to use your superpower to lift someone in their hardest moment
How to dream something and then do the work to make it real
How friendship becomes the foundation for everything worth building
How to lead with love in every room you walk into
How kindness attracts more kindness back into your life
How to grieve loss while still showing up for the world
How asking first makes connection stronger
How to recognize the gift in people that the world underestimates
How to love someone for a thousand years, starting today

Human School is powered by the work happening at Onsite, a place where people step out of their normal rhythms to do deeper healing work in community. Learn more here.

Follow Human School:

YouTube - Human School Podcast

Instagram - @humanschoolofficial

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Listen to Tim's Podcast

Follow Tim on Instagram

What We Discuss:

00:00:00 – Meet Tim Harris

00:03:02 – Country music fan since 13: Garth Brooks, Josh Turner & the deep cuts

00:05:20 – Nashville coffee taste test

00:10:39 – Tim's Big Heart Foundation

00:13:42 – "Oh, yeah": the trademark and how his dad gave him the hype

00:14:25 – Tim’s 7 steps to an awesome life

00:16:05 – Tim's Place: Breakfast, Lunch & Hugs

00:21:36 – Special Olympics USA Games Athlete: representing New Mexico

00:26:55 – The Book of Hugs: monkeys, bananas, and the world's biggest softie

00:30:21 – "Hugs are the best medicine to heal the world"

00:39:25 – Grief and the friend who gave his book away before he passed

00:43:14 – Speed dating, proposals, and dreaming about love

00:44:57 – A special performance from Tim & Miles

00:51:09 – Meeting Reba McEntire on the job

01:02:28 – World Down Syndrome Day and Tim Tebow's Night to Shine

01:13:41 – Emcee at the World Games & Hugging the Obamas

01:18:21 – "We should love each other for a thousand years"

01:19:03 - Tim makes Miles his new best friend — officially

01:21:33 - Tim McGraw reached out about "Humble and Kind"

01:23:01 - Nashville boots, cowboy hat, and a human school gift

How to Make People Feel Truly Seen with Mary Bellofatto May 15, 2026

Show notes

Have you ever met someone who spent 50 years healing others and somehow became more human with every one of those years?

What would it mean to stop hiding behind your busyness, your title, or your phone, and let someone actually see you?

Mary Bellofatto is a pioneer in mental health who has spent five decades walking the hardest terrain human experience offers — trauma, disordered eating, addiction, grief, and couples work. With deep mastery in psychodrama, she has brought healing to therapy rooms across the world. At 81, she still wakes up excited, tears up at the thought of never retiring, and gets out of Ubers last because someone needs to finish their story.

In this conversation, Mary opens up about what it means to be a catalyst without burning out, why loneliness is cured by learning to be alone, and how shame shields the grief we won't feel. She shares the moment a young man in Uganda said, "I'm just a boy," and freed himself from years of soldiers' shame. Miles and Mary go deep into disordered eating, including what she said in a bathroom that finally unlocked the real story underneath. Eighty years of hard-won wisdom, delivered with Arkansas common sense and lack of clinical jargon.

In this conversation, you'll learn:

How to Be a Catalyst Without Losing Yourself
How Loneliness Can Be Cured by Learning to Be Alone
How Shame Functions as a Shield for Unprocessed Grief
How to Widen Your Definition of Grief Beyond Loss
How the Stories We Tell Ourselves Build a Lifetime Around a Lie
How Psychodrama Unlocks What Talk Therapy Can't Reach
How to Hold Space Without Trying to Fix Anyone
How to Recognize When Busyness Is a Medicator
How Disordered Eating Is Really About Dignity
How to Live Your Legacy Right Now — Not Someday

Human School is powered by the work happening at Onsite, a place where people step out of their normal rhythms to do deeper healing work in community. Learn more at ⁠⁠experienceonsite.com⁠.

Learn more about the Pastor's Living Centered Program through The Onsite Foundation at theonsitefoundation.org.

Follow Human School:

YouTube - Human School Podcast

Instagram - @humanschoolofficial

Threads - @humanschoolofficial

TikTok - @humanschoolofficial

What We Discuss:

00:00:00 - Meet Mary Bellofatto

00:04:31 - The Currency of Miracles

00:05:55 - How to Hold Space Without Fixing Anyone

00:09:37 - Wounded in Relationship, Healed in Relationship

00:09:10 - The Airport Wave That Said Everything

00:10:54 - Tears Are Actually Talking

00:12:30 - Why Strangers Always Pour Their Stories Out to Her

00:13:53 - Hugging Your Uber Drivers

00:20:04 - What We Miss When We Hide Behind Technology

00:21:52 - Grief in the Coffee Aisle

00:23:22 - What Hurry Is Really Running From

00:25:19 - Loneliness and the Courage to Be Alone

00:26:44 - Shame Is the Shield

00:29:57 - The Many Faces of Grief

00:32:11 A - Country That Stopped Grieving

00:40:18 - Does Kindness Still Work?

00:43:06 - Trauma Is…

00:44:18 - The Stories We Tell Ourselves vs What We Hear

00:48:32 - How Mary Walks into a Room Full of Strangers

00:52:11 14 - Years of Monthly Psychodrama Training

01:00:38 - The Child Soldiers of Uganda

01:03:37 - Rwanda After the Genocide

01:05:02 - The Brain When People Move Their Bodies

01:13:44 - Wisdom from 53 Years of Marriage

01:22:27 - Disordered Eating Is Not Like Any Other Addiction

01:35:58 - Mary Doubles for Miles Live, On Air

01:41:19 - Legacy is the Now

01:48:22 - Words to the World Right Now

01:54:04 - Pastor’s Living Centered Program at Onsite

01:55:08 - Five Grammy Moments from Mile’s North Star

The Pressure to Get It "Right" with Thomas Rhett May 06, 2026

Show notes

Have you ever stood in the middle of a life that looks great on paper and still felt like you were failing the people right in front of you?

What if being hard on yourself isn't humility? It's just the long way around to never believing you're enough?

And what happens when the same obsessive drive that makes you world-class at your craft is the exact thing that makes it hard to just sit down and watch your kid eat cereal slowly?

Miles sits down with his longtime friend for one of the most honest and wide-open episodes yet. Thomas Rhett brings all of himself — the songwriter who goes all in on everything he loves, the dad of five learning to trade productivity for presence, and the man doing the real work to make sure who his family experiences every day is the same person the world admires from a distance. This one is full of laughter, hard-won wisdom, and the kind of honesty that only happens between two people who genuinely trust each other.

This conversation is about the guy who flips on the bedroom lights at 6:30 AM, trying to get five kids out the door, and wonders on the drive home if he loved them well at all that morning. The man who told a new friend upfront, "I'm not a good friend" — and actually believed it. The songwriter who can make strangers cry but struggles to list three ways he was showing up for his own kids. Miles and Thomas Rhett go deep into what it actually looks like to chase congruence, to be as present and real inside your home as you are when the world is watching.

Thomas Rhett shares what his first trip to Onsite taught him about letting go, how a simple question from his counselor cracked something open about the way he sees himself as a father, why he's writing his most intentional album yet, and what he hopes his kids say about him long after the number ones stop counting.

In this conversation, you'll learn:

How to Stop Measuring Your Worth by Rooms That Aren't Full
How to Ask the Question: "How Do I Know I'm a Great Father?"
How to Parent Five Kids Completely Differently Without Losing Your Mind
How to Shed Your Stage Persona the Moment You Walk Through Your Front Door
How to Redefine Success So You Can Actually Sleep at Night
How to Have the Friendship You Want Instead of the One You've Labeled Yourself With
How to Live Like You Know You're Going to Die - Ecclesiastes edition
How to Stop Fixing and Start Being Present in the Mess
How to Give Yourself the Dugout Grace Every Parent Desperately Needs
How to Use Your Obsessive Nature as a Superpower Instead of a Trap

Human School is powered by the work happening at Onsite, a place where people step out of their normal rhythms to do deeper healing work in community. Learn more: ⁠experienceonsite.com⁠.

Follow Human School:

YouTube - Human School Podcast

Instagram - @humanschoolofficial

Threads - @humanschoolofficial

TikTok - @humanschoolofficial

Chapters:

00:00:00 – Meet Thomas Rhett Akins

00:03:18 – Trucks, Gear & Going All In

00:07:54 – Soundtrack of the Masters: A Career Highlight

00:09:29 – Golf is a Metaphor for Life

00:17:44 – Tiger Wood’s & Nick Saben’s Life Advice

00:22:01 – The 6:30 AM Spiral with Five Kids

00:24:17 – Wisdom from John Maxwell & Worst-Case Scenarios

00:28:19 – The Question That Started This Friendship

00:30:14 – What Raising Four Daughters is Teaching Him

00:35:49 – The Discipline of Being Present

00:41:23 – Work-Life Balance Is a Myth

00:42:37 – "They Just Need to See Your Eyes"

00:47:10 – What Breaks His Heart Most as a Dad

00:52:07 – "How Do You Know You're a Great Father?"

00:54:10 – The Coach’s Influence Still Impacting Him

00:55:14 – Showing Up in Friendships

00:58:01 – The Round Table & A, B & C Friendships

01:04:10 – Answering the “Great Father” Question

01:20:30 – Ecclesiastes & Living Like You're Going to Die

01:37:44 – Redefining What a “Hit” Actually Means

01:43:32 – Onsite & The Rock in the River

01:47:52 – 36-Year-Old TR Would Tell 25-Year-Old TR

01:52:49 – What He Hopes His Kids Will Remember

How To Navigate Hard Conversations with Jefferson Fisher Apr 29, 2026

Show notes

Stuck in the same emotional patterns? Onsite's LivingCentered Program is a five-day intensive that helps you slow down, go deeper, and do the inner work that changes things. Learn more at ⁠https://hubs.la/Q04dV_Xl0

Have you ever taught others how to communicate, but still lost it in your own kitchen?

What if the best communicators in the world are still works in progress, and that's exactly the point?

Jefferson Fisher is a board-certified trial attorney, NY Times bestselling author of The Next Conversation, and one of themost-followed voices on communication online. Behind the millions of views is a husband, a dad, and a fifth-generation attorney from small-town Texas still figuring it out in real time. In this conversation, Miles and Jefferson get into the real stuff — a flooded house, a morning fight, imposter syndrome, and why even the best communicators still have to earn their reps every day.

Jefferson opens up about the moment being a public-facing person started changing his everyday life, why going to extremes in arguments almost never works, and the phrase his wife came up with mid-argument that changed how he sees conflict. Miles shares a raw moment from his kitchen and what happened when he finally stopped doubling down and let his wife bring the temperature down.

In this conversation, you'll learn:

How to Enter Hard Conversations with Something to Learn, Not Something to Prove
How the Ignition and Cooling Phases Work in Real Arguments
Why Affirming a Feeling First Is the Most Disarming Move You Can Make
How Vulnerability Builds More Trust Than Any Credential on the Wall
How to Stop Going to Extremes in Conflict and What to Do Instead
Why the Best at Being Human Learn It From Living, Not Studying
How to Tell the Difference Between a Reaction and a Repair
How Fame Makes the Very Things You Teach Harder to Practice
Why What's Good for the Family Is Good for the Business
How to Let Go of the Conversation You Had Scripted in Your Head

Follow Human School:

YouTube - Human School Podcast

Instagram - @humanschoolofficial

Threads - @humanschoolofficial

TikTok - @humanschoolofficial

What We Discuss:

00:00:00 - Meet Jefferson Fisher

00:03:54 - What law school doesn’t teach

00:04:42 - How a trial attorney became a communication voice

00:06:09 - Small Town Silsby, Texas

00:08:14 - 800 friends to millions of strangers

00:10:24 - Contrast is the unlock for building an audience

00:27:17 - IBC Root Beer & A Story Told Twice

00:12:33 - His Dad Raised Him with Questions, not Answers

00:19:57 - Imposter Syndrome feels different when your job istalking

00:23:42 - Does he actually use any of this at home?

00:29:18 - Miles's morning: A flooded house, a fight, and arepair

00:38:08 - Ignition and cooling phases in action

00:39:51 - The one move that stops almost any argument

00:45:08 - One Take Videos: Just being Real on Camera

00:47:45 - Have something to learn, not something to prove

00:53:33 - Surrender as a daily practice

00:57:19 - Even the experts are still chasing the tools theyteach

01:01:48 - Why therapists send clients Jefferson's book

01:06:41 - What Jefferson doesn't like about therapy

01:14:26 - ‘Either way, it's good’— the phrase that reframed conflict

01:15:39 - Embarrassment makes men double down instead of own it

01:19:38 - Jefferson’s Motto on Choosing What’s Next

01:21:05 - Projects in the works from Jefferson

"I Quit Something Every Thursday" with Bob Goff Apr 22, 2026

Show notes

Stuck in the same emotional patterns? Onsite's Living Centered Program is a five-day intensive that helps you slow down, go deeper, and do the inner work that changes things. Learn more at experienceonsite.com

What if the most meaningful thing you ever did wasn't whatmade you famous, but who you showed up for when nobody was watching?

What if the key to getting unstuck isn't adding more to yourlife, but having the courage to quit something on a Thursday?

Bob Goff — NYT bestselling author, founder of Love Does, andhonorary consul to Uganda — joins Miles Adcox for one of the most honest conversations in Human School history. These two have traveled conflict zones together, worked with San Quentin, and called each other in the gutted middle-of-the-night moments real friendships are made of.

Bob opens up about walking away from law, stepping back fromspeaking, and handing over the nonprofit, he literally wrote the book on. He shares the four lies he tells himself daily and why naming them changed everything. He tells the story of Kabi — a Ugandan witch doctor convicted of child sacrifice — whom Bob prosecuted, befriended on death row, and watched transform an entire prison. They go deep on finding your "eight," the epidemic of loneliness, and why so many of us are surrounded by acquaintances but starving for real friendship.

In this conversation, you'll learn:

How to Use Context to Replace Judgment Before It Costs You a Relationship
How to Know the Difference Between Self-Aware andSelf-Absorbed
How to Find Your Eight and Stop Mistaking Acquaintances for Friends
How to Quit Something Every Thursday and Why It's the Most Freeing Practice
How to Stop Freeze-Framing People in Their Worst Moment
How to Replace "How Are You" with a Question ThatOpens a Door
How to Recognize Your Tells and What They're ReallyProtecting
How to Catch Someone on the Bounce After the Crater
How to Connect Your Why Before You Make the Move
How to Show Up for the Hard-to-Love Without an Agenda

Follow Human School:

YouTube - Human School Podcast

Instagram - @humanschoolofficial

Threads - @humanschoolofficial

TikTok - @humanschoolofficial

What We Discuss:

00:00:00 Meet Bob Goff

00:05:04 What San Quentin Taught Him About Context andJudgment

00:07:24 17 Counts of Armed Robbery, an Xbox, and $1,100Total Haul

00:11:44 Knowing Your Tells

00:12:11 Guide vs. Sherpa: How Onsite Does It Differently

00:13:17 Self-Aware vs. Self-Absorbed

00:15:57 Choosing to Be Misunderstood

00:22:03 A Hot Pink Castle and Grandparents Who Were NutsAbout Him

00:23:41 Stop Asking “How Are You?”

00:28:52 The Loneliness Epidemic

00:30:59 The Polaroid Problem —Hesitating to Make the Call

00:36:50 Your “Eight” Relationships

00:37:56 Four Lies Bob Tells Himself and the Audit ThatExposes Them

00:44:58 Setbacks Aren't Campsites

00:45:36 Quitting His Own Law Firm Without Explanation

00:46:10 Quit Something Every Thursday

00:58:45 12 Daily Disneyland Tickets and What They Reveal

01:05:19 If Your Brain Can See Itself, It Can Heal Itself

01:10:33 How Bob Got Six Giraffes from a President

01:19:30 Catching People on the Bounce

01:25:32 The Story of Kabi

01:35:30 The Most Surprising Thing About Great Friendship

Building A Career Without Losing Yourself with Nicolle Galyon Apr 16, 2026

Show notes

Nicolle mentions her time at Onsite's Living Centered Group Intensive in this conversation and the transformation thathappened for her during that program. If you want to know more about that experience, visit experienceonsite.com or give our team a call at 1(800)341-7432.

Have you ever built a life that looks like everything you wanted and realized you left the most important version of yourself behind?

What if going home and getting quiet enough to hear yourself was actually the bravest thing you could do?

Nicolle Galyon is one of country music's most decorated songwriters — BMI Songwriter of the Year, ACM Song of the Year winner, and the writer behind hits for Dan + Shay, Lee Brice, Kenny Chesney, Miranda Lambert, Keith Urban, andcountless others. But beyond the number ones, Nicolle has done something harder: she stopped, looked inward, and rebuilt her life around what matters most.

In this conversation, you'll learn:

How to Recognize When Achievement Has Become Your Medicator
How to Find the Childhood Script Running Your Life Without Permission
How to Trade the Pressure of Outcomes for the Freedom of Loving the Process
How Stillness Unlocks the Creativity That Noise Has Been Blocking
How to Build a Career Without Losing Yourself in It
How to Cultivate an Abundance Mentality When Someone You Love Is Winning
How Community — Not Achievement — Is the Real Marker for a Meaningful Life
How to Navigate Success in a Marriage Between Two Creatives
How to Raise Kids Who Feel Belonging Instead of Pressure
How to Know When It's Time to Go Home

Follow Human School: YouTube - Human School Podcast Instagram - @humanschoolofficial Threads - @humanschoolofficial TikTok - @humanschoolofficial
Mentioned in This Episode:

Songs & Daughters - @songsanddaughters
Nicolle's Music

What We Discuss: 00:00:00 – Meet Nicolle Galyon

00:05:07 – Why Stillness Is Essential

00:07:51 – The Psychology of Boredom

00:15:08 – What Nicolle Rediscovered When She Finally Slowed Down

00:19:00 – Reframing Boredom

00:22:18 – Onsite's Living Centered Program Changed Everything

00:25:38 – Where the Drive to Achieve Really Came From

00:30:06 – Money Scripts And How They're Driving You

00:35:20 – Why Success Still Makes Her Emotional

00:45:53 – Love or Money? The Exercise That Shifts Everything

00:49:08 – The Moment She Knew She Belonged in Nashville

00:56:09 – Navigating Rejection When the Odds Are Against You

01:00:56 – Falling in Love with the Process Over the Outcome

01:03:55 – Songs and Daughters: Mentoring the Next Generation of Women

01:08:44 – The Moment She Felt Like a Hypocrite and What She Did To Change It

01:09:53 – Marrying a Songwriter

01:13:16 – How to Build an Abundance Mentality in Any Relationship

01:16:19 – Sterling, Kansas Was Her Superpower All Along

01:25:41 – The Most Meaningful Song Nobody Knows

01:30:51 – How She Found Out "Tequila" Blew Up

01:32:43 – What She Wants Her Kids to See in How She Lives

01:36:26 – Advice That Changed How Miles Shows up

01:38:11 – Firstborn: A Letter Written for Her Children

01:39:10 – Closing: Go Do the Work So You Can Come Home More Completely

Hardy: Life, Fatherhood, and Figuring It Out as You Go Apr 08, 2026

Show notes

Real healing for real people. Onsite offers personal growth workshops and intensive therapeutic experiences just outside Nashville and San Diego. Learn more at experienceonsite.com.

What does it actually take to stay human when the worldturns you into a commodity?

And what happens when the panic attacks you've been outrunning finally catch up with you?

HARDY is one of the most respected names on Music Row. With 18 number ones to his name, songs for Morgan Wallen, Florida Georgia Line, Blake Shelton, and Ella Langley, and his own albums, including Quit and Country! Country!, he's built something rare: a career that's loud and a character that's honest. But behind the stages and the chart success is a guy who survived a terrifying tour bus accident, quietly battled panic attacks, walked into an Onsite intensive and came out the other side with something most artists never find — a healthy relationship with all of it.

In this conversation, HARDY opens up about the night his tour bus flipped on the interstate, what it was like to FaceTime his fiancée covered in blood right before getting in the ambulance, and how he spent a full year numbing his way through the aftermath before his nervous system finally sent the bill. He reveals how a golf-course panic attack convinced him it was time to make the call for help, what happened when EMDR walked him back to a hospital bed he doesn't even remember, and why that infant version of him is the one he wept for the hardest. He also talks candidly about new fatherhood, the decision to cut from 90 tour dates down to 34, and why he'd rather be the “Mayor of Music Row” than the biggest name on it.

In this conversation, you'll learn:

How to Recognize When You're Medicating Trauma Instead of Processing It
How EMDR Can Reach Pain You Don't Consciously Remember
How to Tell the Difference Between a Panic Attack and aHeart Attack (and Why Your Brain Can Convince You of Either)
How Becoming a Parent Reverses Your Perspective on Your Own Parents
How to Write a Letter to Start the Difficult Conversations
How to Fall Back in Love with Your Work After You've Burned Out
How Pre-Verbal Trauma Shapes the Anxiety You Feel Today
How Sharing Your Story Out Loud Is Its Own Form of Therapy
How to Build a Generational Legacy Through Relationships, Not Just Wealth
How to Stay Yourself When the Industry Wants to Put You in a Box

Mentioned in This Episode:

HARDY's feature in CMA Close Up Magazine
EMDR Therapy — learn more and find a certified therapist:emdria.org/about-emdr-therapy
Find an EMDR-trained therapist near you:emdria.org/find-a-therapist

Follow Human School:

YouTube - Human School Podcast

Instagram - @humanschoolofficial

Threads - @humanschoolofficial

TikTok - @humanschoolofficial

What We Discuss:

00:00:00 – Meet HARDY

00:02:57 – Life Right Now: The Road & a One-Year-Old

00:03:49 – The Sleep Trainer Who Changed Everything

00:08:10 – What Fatherhood Teaches You That Nothing Else Can

00:09:45 – HARDY's Biggest Parenting Challenge

00:13:12 – What 70 Years of Marriage Actually Requires

00:17:13 – Becoming a Dad Rewired His View of His Own Parents

00:19:25 – HARDY's Onsite Experience

00:23:05 – Pre-Verbal Trauma and Why It Still Controls You

00:25:52 – Combat Veterans on Trauma's Real Root

00:29:11 – The Night the Bus Flipped

00:42:47 – A Year of Numbing

00:44:25 – Getting Back on the Bus for the First Time

00:57:45 – Sharing Your Story With Another Human Is Enough

01:02:02 – EMDR Finally Quieted the Noise

01:03:37 – The Golf Course Panic Attack

01:08:20 – Post-Traumatic Growth: Turning Survival Into Empathy

01:11:38 – Going Public About His Mental Health

01:20:20 – Being a Good Hang Is Its Own Kind of Strategy

01:23:42 – Bottomland, His Grandfather's Shotgun, and Coming Home

01:31:23 – Following His Creative Instinct

01:37:45 – When Saying No to Money Is the Right Call

01:44:19 – The Modern Outlaws: Growing Up Together in Country Music

01:47:06 – The Reminder about Anxiety We All Need

Dr. Jeffrey Balser: How Great Leaders Handle Hard Things Apr 01, 2026

Show notes

If this conversation moves you, Onsite might be the nextstep. Their immersive workshops are where people go to stop performing and start doing the real work. Visit experienceonsite.com or call 1(800) 341-7432 to find the experience best for you.

What if the grief you buried as a teenager becomes the force that makes you human enough to lead thousands?

What if the greatest leadership lessons come not from aboardroom, but from a bedside?

Dr. Jeffrey Balser is the CEO and President of VanderbiltUniversity Medical Center, one of the most respected academic medical institutions in the world with 45,000 employees and over a billion dollars in annual community benefit. But beneath the title is a man who spent a lifetime learning what most leaders never slow down long enough to figure out: that the grief you don't deal with follows you into the boardroom, that the skills you build in crisis belong just as much at home, and that the most important thing you lead may not be on your org chart.

In this conversation, Miles and Jeff move between thepersonal and professional, with the ease of two people who have spent years paying attention. They talk about losing a mother to cancer at sixteen, how he chose the wrong path in college, and what it cost to walk out of one room where a patient didn't survive and into the next where someone needed him at full capacity. They talk about the Saturday email that confirmed the COVID vaccine worked, how his wife is to credit for Melinda keeping Nashville's parks open during the city shutdown, and why he's had the same executive coach for 25 years. What emerges in this conversation is a portrait of a man leading one of America's great institutions not by having all the answers, but by staying honest about how much he still has to learn.

In this conversation, you'll learn:

How to Turn Personal Tragedy Into Emotional Resilience That Lasts
How to Lead Tens of Thousands Without Losing the Human in the Room
How to Use the "Weekend Rule" to Build a CultureWhere People Like Each Other
How to Bring Work Home Without Destroying What's Waiting for You There
How to Emotionally Regulate the Way ICU Doctors Are Trained To
How to Clean Out the Parking Lot Before It Runs Your Life
How to Focus on the Middle Third When Unpopular Decisions Make You a Target
How to Communicate Through Crisis in a Way That Builds Trust
How to Think About AI in Healthcare Without Losing WhatMakes Medicine Human
How to Know When Your Most Important Role Isn't on YourBusiness Card

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What We Discuss:

00:00:00 – Meet Dr. Jeffery Balser

00:03:32 – Backing Into Medicine Through Math andEngineering

00:05:54 – Losing His Mother at 16 and a Surprising Mentor

00:10:37 – How Early Grief Taught Him to Handle Hard Things

00:14:27 – Professions Don’t Stay at the Door

00:20:53 – How Nashville's Parks Stayed Open in COVID

00:23:19 – Leaving Johns Hopkins When His Gut Said Stop

00:28:28 – Why Admin Rewards Take Longer but Run Deeper

00:31:30 – What People Say Right Before Dangerous Surgery

00:34:55 – The Medical Training Every Leader Needs: The ParkingLot

00:44:00 – Having the Same Executive Coach for 25 Years

00:48:50 – Empathy Is a Two-Way Street

00:50:57 – Leading 45,000: The Only Thing That Scales Is WhoYou Recruit

00:54:53 – The Weekend Rule That Transformed Vanderbilt'sCulture

00:59:20 – The Tension of Scaling & Culture

01:04:00 – Communication is Critical

01:07:30 – Leading Tennessee Through COVID

01:13:30 – What COVID Taught Us

01:15:09 – The Saturday Email He’ll Never Forget

01:19:45 – The Role of Medical Services in Overall Health

01:27:29 – AI Saved a Life Before Surgery

01:34:07 – Where Leaders Should Aim Their Energy

01:46:10 – What 40 Years of Leadership Taught Him AboutBeing a Father

01:53:48 – What Matters Most When the Statue's Just for theBirds

Bear Rinehart: The Long Surrender to Freedom Mar 25, 2026

Show notes

Spend a few days getting honest, going deeper, and walking out lighter at Onsite. Visit ⁠experienceonsite.com⁠ to learn more or call 1-800-341-7432 to find the best experience for your story.

Have you ever carried shame so long it started to weigh more than the life you were living?

What if surrender isn't giving up, but the one move that sets everything free?

Bear Rinehart is the frontman and voice of NEEDTOBREATHE — one of the most distinctive vocalists of his generation, whosesongs have filled arenas for two decades. But beneath the anthems is a man who spent years growing into what the world saw as a rock-and-roll frontman. As a preacher’s kid with social anxiety, a survivor of childhood trauma, and an artist who learned early that revealing too much could cost you everything, Bear has carried more than most people would guess from the stage.

In this conversation, Miles and Bear share stories about shame, recovery, faith, fatherhood, and what it costs to finally step fully into who you are. What emerges is a portrait of two men in the middle of their own ongoing surrender, finding out in real time how much they have in common.

That surrender became NEEDTOBREATHE’s newest project — The Long Surrender — the most personal record yet to the band, written by Bear in the early mornings, recorded in first takes, and built around the one lesson Bear keeps coming back to: that freedom isn't found by holding it together. It's found the moment you stop and let others into your healing.

In this conversation, you'll learn: