Finding Your Spine

Jesse Boulden, Director of the ALERT Academy in Big Sandy, Texas, argues that courage is less a gift some men are born with than a capacity that has to be used. Scripture keeps telling people to be courageous, he says, and his own father’s hard years in the Navy made the point concrete. At ALERT, a gap-year program of discipleship, emergency training, and service, young men practice that muscle in small reps before they fight fires, dive, or deploy.  

Boulden distinguishes real courage from the fake kind that talks big online and then refuses a face-to-face cost. He also warns that well-meant parental protection can bubble-wrap sons until they will not take a risk. Freedom and safety do not travel together. The conversation moves through public speaking, a broken obstacle course at officer candidate school, the leadership tests of 2020, and the fear of man that makes God look small. Boulden says a culture survives only if it has children and a pipeline that turns boys into men of self-control. Fathers do most of that work. ALERT tries to stand in the gap Ron Fuhrman opened in 1994: nine weeks of boot camp, emergency skills, a specialty, and a bias for service.

00:00:00 – Introduction
00:03:09 – How Jesse Came to ALERT
00:05:20 – Can Courage Be Trained
00:06:02 – Courage Like a Muscle
00:08:36 – False Courage Online
00:10:25 – Parents and Bubble Wrap
00:13:06 – Boys in the Creek
00:14:19 – Freedom Versus Safety
00:16:00 – Public Speaking Reps
00:18:31 – A Broken Obstacle Course
00:20:05 – 2020 Exposed the Cracks
00:21:11 – Courage Must Be Renewed
00:23:28 – Fear of Man
00:25:04 – Calls Based on Truth
00:27:16 – Harder Days Ahead
00:28:49 – Apathy Is Not Inevitable
00:30:22 – Boys Must Become Men
00:33:25 – Fathers Do the Forming
00:36:22 – What ALERT Actually Is
00:41:26 – Why He Stayed
00:42:06 – The Men Are the Mission  

Find out more about Jesse and his work at ALERT Academy here: https://alertacademy.com/

You can follow Chase Spears on X @DrChaseSpears. Don’t forget to like, subscribe, and share your favorite episodes to keep the conversation going.

To learn more about the Herzog Foundation, visit HerzogFoundation.com. Like and follow us on Facebook, X, and Instagram, or sign up to receive monthly email updates.

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Lathan Watts, vice president of public affairs at Alliance Defending Freedom, explains how ADF fights in court, in legislatures, and in public for the God-given right to live and speak the truth. He describes clients who never asked to become test cases, cases that can last years, and a public-affairs job that translates legal work so ordinary people can recognize when their rights are being crossed. Watts answers Christians who treat persecution as a reason not to use the law. He points to the Apostle Paul appealing to Caesar and treats American constitutional protections as a stewardship trust, not a talent to bury.

The episode surveys recent Supreme Court work: a Colorado counseling ban, a New Jersey pregnancy center fight, and women’s-sports laws in Idaho and West Virginia. Watts argues that gender ideology now touches speech, religious liberty, and parental rights at once. He rejects the claim that law cannot teach morality, walks through the Declaration’s theological assumptions, and contrasts ordered liberty with the French Revolution’s collapse into chaos. The charge is simple: keep using the courts, keep forming consciences, and do not surrender what was given.

00:00:00 – Introduction

00:03:55 – Court of Public Opinion

00:08:00 – Conscience Protects All

00:12:19 – How a Client Case Starts

00:15:22 – Four Supreme Court Wins

00:16:04 – Counseling Ban Struck Down

00:17:28 – Pregnancy Center Harassment

00:19:05 – Women’s Sports Laws Stand

00:21:24 – One Ideology Many Rights

00:25:07 – Law Teaches Morality

00:27:43 – Theology of the Founding

00:32:17 – Ordered Liberty Not Chaos

00:36:22 – From Law to Messaging

You can find out more about the work Lathan Watts does at https://adflegal.org/profile/lathan-watts/

You can follow Chase Spears on X @DrChaseSpears. Don’t forget to like, subscribe, and share your favorite episodes to keep the conversation going.

To learn more about the Herzog Foundation, visit HerzogFoundation.com. Like and follow us on Facebook, X, and Instagram, or sign up to receive monthly email updates.

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Tim Goeglein, vice president of external and government relations at Focus on the Family, argues that faith and public life were never meant to be strangers. Drawing on years in the Bush White House, the Senate, and Washington advocacy, he says the American story repeatedly turns on the church: the Revolution, the fight against the slave trade, the Cold War, and the pro-life movement. He revisits Jefferson’s letter to the Danbury Baptists and Washington’s letter to Rhode Island’s Jewish congregation to show that religious liberty was never a high wall shutting conviction out of civic life. 

The conversation then turns to what Goeglein calls the permanent things: marriage, family, parental rights, conscience, and the meaning of words. He frames the country’s deepest problem as a spiritual crisis of moral relativism and defines conservatism as reforming in order to preserve. Goeglein discusses a hopeful turn among young men toward marriage and faith, the harder trend among many young women, and the “unmarriageable” pool of men who are neither in school nor at work. In Aaron Renn’s “negative world,” he says the local church is still the best place to teach friendship, dating, and the family before those goods are forgotten.

00:00:00 – Introduction

00:01:35 – Focus on the Family

00:03:13 – Speaking in Public

00:04:01 – Faith and Government

00:06:45 – Danbury Letter Myth

00:08:07 – Washington on Virtue

00:10:17 – A Moral Republic

00:12:04 – Church Family Government

00:14:40 – What Really Matters

00:19:12 – Conservatism and Christ

00:20:44 – Reform to Preserve

00:23:19 – Young Men Turning

00:24:41 – Restoring the American Male

00:27:27 – Living in Negative World

00:28:54 – Church and Relationships

You can find out more about Tim Goeglein and Focus on the Family here: https://www.focusonthefamily.com/contributors/tim-goeglein/

You can follow Chase Spears on X @DrChaseSpears. Don’t forget to like, subscribe, and share your favorite episodes to keep the conversation going.

To learn more about the Herzog Foundation, visit HerzogFoundation.com. Like and follow us on Facebook, X, and Instagram, or sign up to receive monthly email updates.

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Sam Rolofson, a serving Army officer and trainer of future leaders, talks about what happens when a fighting force tries to run on several incompatible moral systems at once. He traces the tension from equal-opportunity classrooms to Army values such as respect and dignity, which sound universal until leaders treat them as preferences instead of truths grounded in something higher. Vague language about readiness and lethality, he argues, lets officials justify almost any policy after the fact.

The conversation turns to moral injury: the hidden cost of lying for a green box, enforcing rules you do not believe, or watching standards collapse after Afghanistan. Rolofson wants professional military education to teach worldview and philosophy so commanders can decide what is right rather than hide behind lawyers. He then walks through the GOMAR system—tens of thousands of permanently filed reprimands, investigations built on hearsay, and an appeals path so slow that soldiers must prove their own innocence while the Army assumes the file is correct. Zero-defect culture, he says, produces glass-jawed commanders and erodes the warrior ethos. His counsel to cadets is simple: stay true to yourself.

00:00:00 – Introduction

00:00:55 – Speaking While Still Serving

00:04:26 – Competing Army Worldviews

00:06:52 – Equal Opportunity Training

00:09:14 – Respect Without a Center

00:11:22 – Dignity and Combat Paradox

00:12:42 – Has Anything Changed

00:14:41 – Careerists Versus Warriors

00:17:37 – Vague Value Language

00:20:05 – What Moral Injury Is

00:22:28 – Spiritual Readiness and PME

00:25:15 – Ivy League Fellowships

00:28:34 – How GOMARs Work

00:32:02 – Permanent Filing Numbers

00:35:11 – Prove Your Own Innocence

00:40:47 – Zero Tolerance Culture

00:43:46 – Glass-Jawed Commanders

00:46:43 – Warrior Ethos Eroded

00:48:50 – Advice to Cadets

You can follow Chase Spears on X @DrChaseSpears. Don’t forget to like, subscribe, and share your favorite episodes to keep the conversation going.

To learn more about the Herzog Foundation, visit HerzogFoundation.com. Like and follow us on Facebook, X, and Instagram, or sign up to receive monthly email updates.

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Pastor J. Chase Davis of The Well Church in Boulder, Colorado, discusses Offensive Christianity and why Christian men should stop treating manhood as a liability. He explains the book’s double meaning: the gospel will offend a dying world, and Christians are called to go on offense rather than hide in a bunker until Christ returns.

Davis contrasts piety with pietism, arguing that a split between body and soul has taught many evangelicals to treat business, politics, family formation, and national life as dirty distractions from “spiritual” things. He traces that split to Enlightenment rationalism and later pietistic strains that emptied desire, delayed responsibility, and recast testosterone as a problem. The conversation turns to the full character of Christ—not only the cross, but His public confrontation, resurrection authority, and present reign—then to media that trains boys to see fathers as fools. Davis describes how his church talks with men about work, fitness, home defense, and disagreement, and warns that if churches will not speak to young men’s hunger for mission, pagan voices will. The episode closes with practical tests for spotting pietism in otherwise Bible-believing churches.

00:00:00 – Introduction

00:05:50 – Dominion and the Great Commission

00:09:22 – Law and Christian Influence

00:11:31 – Piety Versus Pietism

00:17:10 – Fear of Giving Offense

00:20:06 – Full Character of Christ

00:24:27 – Culture Talking Down to Men

00:29:16 – What Men’s Ministry Should Be

00:35:36 – Cancel Culture in Church

00:40:50 – How Wide Pietism Runs

00:43:20 – Tests That Reveal Pietism

You can follow Chase Spears on X @DrChaseSpears. Don’t forget to like, subscribe, and share your favorite episodes to keep the conversation going.

To learn more about the Herzog Foundation, visit HerzogFoundation.com. Like and follow us on Facebook, X, and Instagram, or sign up to receive monthly email updates.

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Brett Craig, an award-winning advertising creative and chief creative officer of XX/XY Athletics, talks about standing up for women’s sports from inside an industry that rarely rewards that kind of candor. After years making Super Bowl work for major brands, he now helps lead the rare apparel company willing to say men do not belong in women’s competition. The conversation covers why so many executives stay quiet even when their daughters are at stake, how wealth and distance can insulate people from consequences, and why giants such as Nike still treat the issue as untouchable. Craig recounts the ads that turned attention back to girls’ lost opportunities, including a film later shared by J.K. Rowling. He also tells the story behind his exit from agency life: a 2020 cancellation over a five-year-old casting email, the closed doors that followed, a short stretch at The Daily Wire, and the sense that those losses redirected his craft. The episode ends with a harder question of vocation—whether gifts honed selling tacos and beer can be used instead to tell the truth, take the cost, and refuse to hide.

00:00:00 – Introduction

00:01:49 – Pressure Not to Speak

00:03:13 – Grace Versus Urgency

00:07:42 – How the Brand Began

00:09:23 – Real Girls Rock

00:11:56 – Why Nike Stays Quiet

00:16:07 – Path Into Advertising

00:21:40 – Why Bad Campaigns Happen

00:27:17 – Why He Left Agencies

00:36:28 – Counting the Cost

00:40:35 – Using Gifts for Truth

You can follow Chase Spears on X @DrChaseSpears. Don’t forget to like, subscribe, and share your favorite episodes to keep the conversation going.

To learn more about the Herzog Foundation, visit HerzogFoundation.com. Like and follow us on Facebook, X, and Instagram, or sign up to receive monthly email updates.

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Dr. Matthew Mehan, associate dean and associate professor of government at Hillsdale College’s Van Andel Graduate School of Government in Washington, D.C., discusses The American Book of Fables and why stories still form citizens. A scholar of literature, rhetoric, and civic education, Mehan argues that arguments alone are not enough. People also need images that teach them to love courage, self-government, and the land. He explains how the book weaves fables, nursery rhymes, founding letters, and frontier accounts across 13 American regions, each tied to a phrase from the Declaration of Independence. 

The conversation ranges from the New England Primer and the Columbian Orator to Daniel Boone, wagon trains at Council Grove, and the difference between liberty and law on the Great Plains. Mehan warns that cozy, softened children’s literature has drained grit from the American imagination, while rival narratives rush in to replace our history. He calls for gratitude to forebears, discernment about the images we give children, and a frontier spirit aimed not only west, but east—toward recultivating American towns, checking foreign threats, and forming tough citizens for the next three centuries.

00:00:00 – Introduction

00:00:28 – Why Fables Matter

00:02:03 – Literature and Civic Education

00:03:29 – Teaching Mind and Heart

00:04:00 – Stories That Shape Children

00:05:13 – Settlement and Revolution

00:06:02 – Courage at the Backbone

00:07:37 – Primer and Columbian Orator

00:08:50 – Recapturing American Grit

00:10:48 – Declaration as Framework

00:12:08 – Toughness of the Pioneers

00:14:12 – Recapturing Frontier Spirit

00:16:56 – Americanizing the Fable

00:19:35 – Imagination Against Softness

00:21:46 – Daniel Boone’s Sacrifice

00:24:26 – True Stories Versus False Ones

00:25:43 – History Contains a Story

00:28:43 – Hidden Nursery Rhyme Meanings

00:31:26 – Losing Touch With Origins

00:31:33 – Face East and Stay Tough

00:33:58 – Conquer or Be Conquered

00:36:19 – Unchanging Principles of Justice

00:37:26 – War for the Sake of Peace

00:39:33 – Raising the Literary Standard

00:40:25 – Discerning Books and Images

00:42:07 – Wit Married to Wisdom

You can find out more about Dr. Mehan here: https://dc.hillsdale.edu/Profiles/Matthew-Mehan/

You can order The American Book of Fables here: https://www.amazon.com/American-Book-Fables-Matthew-Mehan/dp/B0G1XYVC54

You can follow Chase Spears on X @DrChaseSpears. Don’t forget to like, subscribe, and share your favorite episodes to keep the conversation going.

To learn more about the Herzog Foundation, visit HerzogFoundation.com. Like and follow us on Facebook, X, and Instagram, or sign up to receive monthly email updates.

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Paul Brown, founder of Wasson Watch Co., shares the story of building a business that openly embodies Christian, conservative, and patriotic values. He explains how the company began in 2018 out of a desire to create high-quality automatic mechanical watches while refusing to remain silent on the cultural issues of the day. The conversation covers the long product-development process, the slow early sales years, and the breakthrough that came after posting more freely on X. 

Brown discusses the Dominion dive watch, inscribed with Genesis 1:28 and featuring a Jerusalem cross, as a wearable statement of the call to take dominion and live with moral courage. 

The discussion expands to demographic changes in Texas, the nature of Islam as a system of power, the responsibility of Christians to oppose evil while loving individuals, and the urgent need for national repentance, reformation, and revival. Brown emphasizes daily Bible reading and prayer as the foundation for boldness, the importance of moral courage, and the truth that Christ reigns as King now. The episode closes with a clear call to faithfulness over outcomes and to act in the time and place God has placed us.

00:00:00 – Introduction

00:02:22 – Founding Wasson Watch

00:07:56 – Product Development Timeline

00:09:09 – Growth on X Platform

00:10:57 – Why Watches Matter

00:14:59 – Jerusalem Cross Story

00:17:15 – Demographic Shifts in Texas

00:18:32 – Islam as Power System

00:21:53 – Mandate to Stand Firm

00:26:11 – National Day of Prayer

00:32:51 – Moral Courage Required

00:34:28 – Faithful in Little Things

00:37:08 – Christ Is King Now

00:42:09 – Faithfulness Over Outcomes

You can find Paul Brown on X @WassonWatch of purchase a watch at https://wassonwatch.com/

You can follow Chase Spears on X @DrChaseSpears. Don’t forget to like, subscribe, and share your favorite episodes to keep the conversation going.

To learn more about the Herzog Foundation, visit HerzogFoundation.com. Like and follow us on Facebook, X, and Instagram, or sign up to receive monthly email updates.

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Aiden Buzzetti, president of the Bull Moose Project and the 1776 Project, discusses the difference between traditional think tanks and “action tanks” that move principles into real-world results. He explains how the Bull Moose Project began in the early Biden years as a way to sustain America First energy and why the organization draws its name from Theodore Roosevelt’s famous resilience after being shot mid-speech.

The conversation highlights the outsized power of local governance—especially school boards—where a single vote can shape curriculum, budgets, and daily life far more directly than one vote in Congress. Buzzetti details the practical work of preparing newly elected school board members, removing ideology from classrooms, and restoring focus on reading and math. He also walks through how congressional offices actually operate, the layers of staff gatekeeping, and why persistent physical presence remains the most effective way to influence policy.

Additional themes include cultural messaging around family formation, the long-term demographic advantage of communities that prioritize children, and why conservatives should remain engaged in public schools even while expanding school choice.

00:00:00 – Introduction

00:01:57 – Local vs. DC

00:08:11 – Starting in the Biden Years

00:09:19 – Origin of Bull Moose

00:14:20 – Roosevelt and Trump Parallels

00:18:06 – Supporting School Boards

00:19:26 – How Congressional Offices Work

00:21:22 – Staff Layers and Gatekeeping

00:28:17 – Why Launch an Action Tank

00:32:31 – Promoting Family and Children

00:38:00 – Local Pushback

00:41:28 – Strategic Value of School Boards

You can find out more about Aiden's work at https://bullmooseproject.org/

You can follow Chase Spears on X @DrChaseSpears. Don’t forget to like, subscribe, and share your favorite episodes to keep the conversation going.

To learn more about the Herzog Foundation, visit HerzogFoundation.com. Like and follow us on Facebook, X, and Instagram, or sign up to receive monthly email updates.

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Social psychologist Dr. Jose Duarte, PhD joins the conversation to examine the widespread problem of invalid and ideologically driven research in academia, particularly in social psychology. He describes how institutions that claim to seek truth often publish false claims about politics, climate, misinformation, and human nature, eroding public connection to reality and shaping policy on taxpayer dollars.

Dr. Duarte recounts his early experiences, including being denied admission to a graduate program over a blog post criticizing Jimmy Carter, and his role as lead author on a major 2015 paper documenting the lack of political diversity in academic psychology and its damaging effects on research validity. The discussion covers the replication crisis, concrete examples of flawed studies (such as those claiming conservatives rationalize inequality), the distinction between scholarship and rigorous research, and the embedding of leftist constructs like “microaggressions” into National Institutes of Health grants.

He details his recent efforts at NIH to develop a clean-science framework free of ideological bias, the limited progress made, ongoing funded projects that advance partisan narratives, and the broader consequences when media and policymakers treat such work as authoritative science. The episode closes with practical avenues for reform through Congress and the executive branch.

00:00:00 – Introduction

00:00:47 – Junk Academic Research

00:01:15 – False Claims from Academia

00:04:44 – Duarte’s Professional Background

00:05:15 – Denied Graduate Admission

00:07:58 – 2015 Political Bias Paper

00:10:12 – Military Academia Disconnect

00:11:49 – Invalid Research Methods

00:13:10 – Conservatives Happiness Study

00:16:26 – Scholarship Versus Research

00:18:16 – Lack of Logic in the Field

00:20:21 – Examples of Ideological Titles

00:22:26 – Taxpayer Funded Ideology

00:24:41 – Defining Microaggressions

00:27:10 – NIH Microaggression Grants

00:28:58 – Clean Science Framework Work

00:32:53 – Impact of Junk Science

00:34:18 – COVID Mask Efficacy Claims

00:35:46 – False Claims on Conservatives

00:37:48 – Tyranny of the Experts

00:39:03 – Current Open NIH Grants

00:41:21 – Paths to Reform

You can find more of Dr. Duarte's work at https://validscience.substack.com

You can follow Chase Spears on X @DrChaseSpears. Don’t forget to like, subscribe, and share your favorite episodes to keep the conversation going.

To learn more about the Herzog Foundation, visit HerzogFoundation.com. Like and follow us on Facebook, X, and Instagram, or sign up to receive monthly email updates.

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