From the Grave Podcast

"There's nothing anyone's gonna say to me or about me that I haven't already said to myself worse."

The reason I don't care what anyone thinks of me anymore is that I spent most of my life as my own persecutor. In this solo episode I get into why the judgment of others only matters as much as your judgment of yourself. I also cover why self-improvement turns into an endless loop, and why you can't beat yourself into a version of yourself you love.

In this episode:
- To stop caring, you first have to care way too much
- Listen to how someone talks about others and you'll hear how they talk to themselves
- Pain is the chief motivator, not another motivational podcast
- You can't David Goggins your way out of this
- The scientist who never persecutes his experiment
- Recovery as surrender: stop getting in the ring
- Only mystery makes sense
- "I must be perfect to be loved"
- Shadow work and tragedy as a wake-up call
- You are your own judge, and your own healer: put the mallet down
- Belief is a snow globe

From the Grave Podcast. Stop running. Start rebuilding.

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"Our culture has given us the technology of gods, but we have wings without wisdom."

Brian Maierhofer is a clinician and somatic therapist who found Carl Jung and Joseph Campbell in a treatment center library at 20, got sober in a 12-step program before his 23rd birthday, and wrote his graduate thesis on the 12 steps as the hero's journey.

We get into how Carl Jung shaped the first steps of AA, why alcoholism is really a thirst for wholeness, and why rock bottom is a spiritual crisis. We also talk about recovery as the "half-life" of your reactions, the felt sense and the wisdom of the body, and the myth of Icarus. We get into why this generation has wings but no one to teach them how to land, rites of passage and the liminal space, Brian's book in progress, and his encounter with Christ.

In this episode:
- Carl Jung, Rowland H. & the roots of AA
- Spiritus contra spiritum: spirits vs. spirits
- Alcoholism as spiritual neurodivergence
- Rock bottom as a spiritual crisis
- "Take your hands out of your pockets": how one sentence becomes a belief system
- Recovery is the half-life of your reactions
- Wings without wisdom: the myth of Icarus
- Rites of passage, liminality & the numinous
- Purpose is found in relationship
- Brian's encounter with Christ

From the Grave Podcast. Stop running. Start rebuilding.

Join my free Skool Community: https://www.skool.com/scottrussellftg
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Follow Brian: 

brianmaierhofer.substack.com

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"God can't bless you from a fake place."

Floyd Prescott III has served LSU Football for over 20 years. It started with a volunteer Bible study in a dorm in 2003 and grew into the team's pastor. No title asked for, no job description, just service. I met Floyd when I spoke to the Tigers, and he prayed over me right before I walked on stage.

We get into why ego makes service look like weakness, letting go of the "pretty route," the question God asked him in his darkest season ("Can I trust you with tragedy?"), why hiddenness is not hatred, why you can't serve from an empty tank, and how to take a first step toward God if it all feels intimidating. He also gets honest about the time he was tempted to walk away from his faith.

If you've ever felt overlooked, unseen, or stuck in a season that doesn't make sense, this one's for you.

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CHAPTERS
0:00 Welcome Floyd Prescott III, LSU Football's pastor
1:00 "Honor to serve"
1:53 Masks, ego & running the "pretty route"
8:31 Perspective precedes path
12:09 J.O.Y.: Jesus, Others, Yourself
15:18 From a dorm Bible study to LSU Football's pastor
27:24 The biggest misconceptions about the Bible
42:45 Floyd's favorite scripture
47:19 "Can I trust you with tragedy?"
50:08 The wilderness right after the blessing
53:12 You're seen: a word for anyone feeling overlooked
58:09 Hiddenness is not hatred
1:00:16 Discernment & why you can't serve from an empty tank
1:05:47 The Trinity, explained simply
1:14:32 A first step if faith feels intimidating
1:20:36 Mindset, motives & mysteries
1:33:00 "I was tempted to walk away from God"
1:36:02 Closing prayer

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC93nT0ACHVfQGW5-BaLNZMQ https://www.instagram.com/fromthegravepodcast/
https://fromthegraveco.com

You spend years in your head trying to make the right decision, and years later you're still talking about the same thing. Overthinking isn't the problem. It's the symptom of never learning to trust yourself, and you can't think your way into self-trust. You have to act your way into it.

I get into where that lack of self-trust comes from, why love gets mixed with judgment, the punishing God so many of us grew up with, and why confidence only shows up after the action, not before it. Then I share the greatest spiritual experience of my life: getting out of my seventh treatment center with nothing, and saying yes to the job everyone in recovery told me never to take.

In this episode:
- Overthinking as a symptom of no self-trust
- Love, judgment, and the "juggernaut judge of the heavens"
- Why you can't get an overthinker to stop overthinking
- Acting in opposition to your mind
- The phone room story and how it launched FTG
- Contempt prior to investigation
- No wiggle room: freedom through commitment

From the Grave Podcast. Stop running. Start rebuilding.

Join my FREE Skool Community: https://www.skool.com/scottrussellftg
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Chris Howard is more than seventeen years sober, the founder of Ethos Recovery, and an interventionist who doesn't sugarcoat anything.

We talk about what happens when trauma becomes your identity, why so much of the treatment industry has traded real change for comfort and amenities, and why Chris now aims for quality of life instead of abstinence alone. We get into failure to launch, parents who need their kids to stay broken, healthy shame versus shame as dirty fuel, psychedelics, and why avoidance sits at the heart of addiction.

Then Chris gets honest about hitting a wall seventeen years in: burnout, fear, and the small integrity slips that nobody sees but you.

Whether you're 30 days sober or 17 years, you're going to face yourself at every part of the race.

In this episode:

• "Weaponizing your trauma" and victim identity
• Why 40–60% of people end up back in treatment
• Quality of life vs. abstinence as the goal
• Family roles and parents who need to be needed
• Shame: signal, fuel, or poison?
• Avoidance, accountability and the little things
• What surrender looks like when you have a lot to lose

From the Grave Podcast. Stop running. Start rebuilding.

Join my Skool Community: https://www.skool.com/scottrussellftg
Newsletter & blog: https://scottrussell.substack.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/scottrussellftg/
Book a session with me: https://scottrussellftg.com/apply-for-the-rebuild

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC93nT0ACHVfQGW5-BaLNZMQ https://www.instagram.com/fromthegravepodcast/
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You got the job, the body, the routine, the relationship… and you still feel hollow. Here's why.

Most self-improvement teaches you to rearrange the furniture on the Titanic. Real change happens in the basement, in the inner world most of us were never taught how to face. In this episode I talk about why productivity and achievement can be the most socially rewarded form of avoidance, what happens when the chaos goes quiet and you're left with yourself, why relief isn't the same as change, and how feeling what you've been avoiding is where the energy to rebuild your life actually lives.

"As water reflects the face, so one's life reflects the heart." (Proverbs 27:19)

👉 Join my free Skool community (live coaching calls, Q&A, and people doing the inner work): https://www.skool.com/scottrussellftg
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Britt Reid has lived through addiction, grief, prison, losing his career, and the kind of shame that can swallow a person whole.

In this episode, Britt opens up about losing his brother to an overdose, his own battle with addiction, the crash that changed his life, prison, recovery, faith, and what it means to rebuild when you can’t undo the past.

We talk about the 12 Steps, making a living amends, learning to forgive yourself, his relationship with his father Andy Reid, and one of the biggest realizations of the conversation:

Stop disqualifying yourself.

You are not your worst decision. You are not your shame. And you do not have to spend the rest of your life proving you deserve to be here.

This one is about ownership, grace, and what happens when you finally stop running from your own story.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC93nT0ACHVfQGW5-BaLNZMQ https://www.instagram.com/fromthegravepodcast/
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Rob Banghart survived addiction, incarceration, homelessness, and an attack that nearly killed him in the tunnels beneath Las Vegas.

But this conversation goes way beyond the survival story.

Rob and I talk about what recovery becomes after the chaos is over—when the work shifts from simply staying sober to actually learning how to live. We get into God, surrender, childhood trauma, the 12 Steps, learning to sit with discomfort, and why recovery can become another prison if we grip it too tightly.

Rob also shares the work he does today with Shine A Light, returning to the same streets he once lived on and helping people move from crisis toward long-term stability.

One of the biggest themes from this episode:

What if fear and pain aren’t punishment? What if they’re signals?

We talk about learning to stop running from discomfort, trusting the mystery, saying “okay” when life calls you forward, and allowing your recovery to become freedom instead of another identity you have to protect.

Topics include: addiction, homelessness, trauma, recovery, spirituality, God, 12-Step recovery, surrender, service, mental health, childhood trauma, purpose, and personal transformation.

Guest: Rob Banghart
Episode: 154
Podcast: From the Grave Podcast

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https://fromthegraveco.com

There’s a lot of judgment flying around right now. Everybody dissecting everybody. Celebrities, addiction, politics, religion, sexuality, recovery, whatever gives people something to point at.

But how much of that judgment is actually helping anybody?

This episode started as a rant about AI slop and scripted content and somehow turned into a full rip on judgment, shame, Christianity, recovery, authenticity, and what it actually means to live from love.

I talk about why I think so many of us are walking around with a pocket full of stones, why shame makes recovery damn near impossible, why our judgment of other people usually says more about us than it does them, and why real faith should make us more loving — not more dangerous to each other. 

Also: LSU, full-time FTG, nicotine withdrawals at Tiger Stadium, eating like a 14-year-old at a concession stand, upcoming guests, and whatever else fell out of my head.

Put the stones down. Love people. Be real.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC93nT0ACHVfQGW5-BaLNZMQ https://www.instagram.com/fromthegravepodcast/
https://fromthegraveco.com

Light Watkins joins me for a conversation about what transformation actually looks like when you stop trying to force it.

We talk about the “tortoise approach” to changing your life, transformation without self-rejection, cultivating presence, finding purpose through curiosity, addiction and dependency, intentionally choosing difficult things, learning to hear your intuition, and trusting the next step before you know where the path is going.

Light also shares the story of needing $14,000 to follow his calling to India, doing 100 burpees every day for a year, and why finding your purpose doesn't necessarily make life easier — sometimes it asks even more of you.

And this one got personal for me.

I'm preparing to leave the security of the workforce and go all in on podcasting, speaking and coaching. No guaranteed paycheck. No perfectly mapped-out plan. Just a growing sense that there's no longer another direction to go.

Maybe that's transformation.

Not having the whole path.

Just finally being willing to take the next step.

Light Watkins is a five-time bestselling author, speaker, meditation teacher, and host of The Light Watkins Show.

For more than two decades, Light has been exploring what it actually means to live from the inside out — teaching meditation, mindfulness, presence, purpose, and a different approach to personal transformation.

His work has taken him around the world, from studying and training in India to speaking for Fortune 500 companies and teaching thousands of people how to develop a more practical relationship with meditation and inner work. His TEDx talk challenging common misconceptions about mindfulness has reached roughly a million people.

Light is the author of five books, including Bliss More, Travel Light, and The Year You Transform. In 2018, he gave up his home and most of his possessions and spent the next five years traveling the world with everything he owned in a single backpack — an experiment in minimalism, trust, presence, and following what he calls your unique path.

At the center of Light’s work is a pretty simple idea: transformation doesn’t always come from forcing ourselves to become somebody new. Sometimes it comes from getting quiet enough to hear where life is already trying to take us.

Light's New Book:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC93nT0ACHVfQGW5-BaLNZMQ https://www.instagram.com/fromthegravepodcast/
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