The Hope Dealer

Disturbance Events

Jen & Brandy use the forest as a metaphor to explore disturbance events—those life disruptions that break expectations, reshape faith, and invite grief.  This episode offers honest conversation about loneliness, faith shaken by hardship, and practical ways to move forward through community, vulnerability, and reminders that we are still here together.

Painting Through Pain

Join us as Carly shares candid memories from her New Mexico childhood, the hard and tender moments that shaped her, and how she channels emotion into ink and watercolor. We talk state-championship bowling, family struggles, moving across the country, finding community, and the small wonders—like hydrangeas and a praying mantis—that inspire her art and help her hold both grief and joy.

Pain Demands to Be Felt

Ella Vandergriff joins the hosts to share her experience living with chronic illness and celiac disease. She discusses her diagnosis, surgeries, and the long journey of coping with persistent pain. The conversation explores how small rituals plus rest, humor, and touch help Ella find agency, joy, and resilience, as well as practical ways to enter someone else's pain, and how vulnerability and intentional self-care can create space for healing and connection.

The Hope Dealer

Join Jen and Brandy as they welcome Steve Beck — the “Hope Dealer” — whose years of peacemaking reveal how to hold joy and pain at once. Steve explains his work helping people and leaders solve conflict by reintroducing hope, focusing on a shared vision of the future, and create healthier workplaces that bring dignity and beauty back into everyday life. He also shares personal lessons from setbacks, mentorship, and choosing an empowered stance of responsibility.

Driving With Pain

Cecil Davis joins for Part 2 of an open, honest conversation about living with intense anxiety, how physical health can mimic panic, and the slow work of recovery. They talk day-to-day coping —"driving with pain", therapy, faith, family roots, and the small steps that become victories.