Leading Through Loss

🎙️Let’s Get Unstuck x Jason Mackenzie🎙️

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Honoring Grief with Jason MacKenzie

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Live with Bridget Belden and Jason McKenzie

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They Did Everything They Could And Lost Their Son

This episode is about what happens when a family loses a son and a brother to suicide after a long, exhausting fight with mental illness. In this episode of the Man Down podcast, Jason sits down with Eric Fulmer [https://substack.com/profile/16771839-eric-fulmer], a husband, father of six, and technology leader who lost his 23 year old son, Nathaniel, in April of 2024. For nearly a year before Nathaniel died, Eric and his family were living inside the chaos of severe mental illness. Hospitalizations. Diagnoses. Psychosis. Constant fear. Constant hope. Constant exhaustion. They were still fighting for him when he died. This conversation covers: * Watching your child unravel while doing everything you can to help * Living inside the mental health system and realizing how broken it is * The shock of losing a child to suicide while trying to protect younger siblings * What it does to a marriage, a family, and a father’s sense of identity * The moment life resets and the old version of you disappears * Why grief forces a man to re-evaluate what actually matters This is a brutally honest conversation about parenting, helplessness, guilt, love, and how a man keeps going after the unthinkable happens. This episode is for: * Parents navigating mental illness with a child * Fathers carrying grief they do not know how to name * Leaders trying to show up while their personal life is wrecked * Anyone learning that you do not go back to who you were before If you have ever felt like your life split into a before and after, this conversation will feel familiar. If this episode hit close to home, the 10 Realities Men Run Into After Loss (and No One Warns Them About) guide goes deeper. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.mandown.tools [https://www.mandown.tools?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

He Lost His Kids. Then He Got Cancer.

Grab your Kleenex. Or if you’re feeling especially macho, get ready to pretend there’s something in your eye. This episode is not about staying positive or pushing through. It is about what happens when a man spends years fighting to see his kids and then gets diagnosed with a very aggressive form of cancer while that fight is still ongoing. In this episode of Man Down, Jason sits down with Adam Cousins, a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu black belt, husband, father, stepdad, and cancer survivor. For more than a decade, Adam was locked in a family court battle trying to have a relationship with his children. Years of limited access. Years of missed time. Years of showing up and being told it still was not enough. Then, in the middle of that fight, he was diagnosed with a fast moving lymphoma and thrown into months of intense chemotherapy. This conversation covers: * What it is like to fight for your kids for years without resolution * Hearing the words “you have cancer” and realizing you have to fight for your life while you’re fighting for your kids. * Going through aggressive chemo while waiting on a court decision * Grieving children who are still alive * The toll this kind of loss takes on a man’s identity * Why shutting down feels safer but costs you so much more in the long run. There is no redemption arc here. No clean ending. No motivational spin. Just a real conversation about endurance, grief, anger, and what it takes to keep showing up when life keeps taking things away. It’s also a beautiful love story that shows what most men know, but don’t say enough: We’re immeasurably better when we have someone who loves us walking arm in arm with us. This episode is for: * Men dealing with serious illness * Fathers who have lost access to their kids * Guys who are holding it together on the outside * Leaders who are realizing strength is not the same as silence If you have ever felt worn down by a fight that never seems to end, this episode will hit close to home. If this episode hit close to home, the 10 Realities Men Run Into After Loss (and No One Warns Them About) guide goes deeper. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.mandown.tools [https://www.mandown.tools?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]