What makes democracy worth defending?

And what happens when people stop believing that it works?

In this episode of Human Enough, I sit down with British journalist and former Metropolitan Police officer Theo Allthorpe-Mullis, host of Dictators v Democrats: Why We Fight.

Before becoming a journalist covering geopolitics, conflict, democracy, and authoritarianism, Theo spent seven years as a police officer working in emergency response, safeguarding, missing persons, modern slavery, and child exploitation.

He later took that experience into journalism, reporting from Ukraine and speaking with military leaders, dissidents, journalists, academics, and people who have confronted authoritarian regimes.

This conversation goes beyond politics and headlines.

We explore why people lose faith in democracy, what authoritarianism looks like from the human side, what policing teaches us about institutions under pressure, why conflict is so difficult to understand from a distance, and what actually makes a democratic society worth defending.

Connect with Theo Allthorpe-Mullis

https://substack.com/@dictatorsvdemocrats

What happens to your faith when suffering stops being a theological question and becomes your everyday reality?

In this episode of Human Enough, I sit down with David Libby, a Christian apologist, theologian, author, and longtime student of theology and philosophy.

David spent years studying the difficult questions surrounding God, morality, suffering, and human existence. But everything changed when his wife and two daughters became desperately ill with Lyme Disease and a host of related complications.

Suddenly, the questions he had studied in books became personal.

Can a loving and sovereign God allow profound suffering?

What does it mean to trust God when the answers don’t seem obvious?

And is there a difference between knowing about God intellectually and actually knowing Him when life takes you to the breaking point?

David’s book, A Different World: God’s Sovereignty in the Face of Suffering, was born out of those years in what he describes as the “muddy and bloody trenches” of suffering.

This conversation explores faith, doubt, suffering, God’s sovereignty, objective morality, Christianity, science, and what happens when our intellectual understanding of God is tested by real life.

What happens when you spend years believing you aren’t enough—and then finally decide to discover who you are without someone else defining you?

In this episode of Human Enough, I sit down with Teri M. Brown, bestselling and award-winning author, podcaster, mother, grandmother, and lifelong storyteller.

Teri’s journey is about much more than writing books. After leaving an emotionally abusive 14-year marriage, she found the courage to pursue a lifelong dream of fiction writing. But one of the most unexpected chapters of her healing journey came in 2020, when she and her husband rode a tandem bicycle 3,102 miles across the United States while raising money for Toys for Tots.

That journey taught Teri something she hadn’t fully understood before: she was stronger than she realized.

Today, she writes across genres, speaks about women’s issues, aging, imposter syndrome, adventure, creativity, and self-worth, while mentoring others who are still trying to discover their own value.

Together, we explore emotional abuse, rebuilding identity, courage, reinvention, self-worth, aging, adventure, creativity, and what it means to finally give yourself permission to become the person you’ve always wanted to be.

Connect with Teri M. Brown:

http://www.terimbrown.com/

What do you do when life tells you that you shouldn’t survive?

What happens when you’re born into circumstances that seem to define your future before you’ve even had the chance to discover who you are?

In this episode of Human Enough, I sit down with David Ebel, author, photographer, disaster responder, instructor, and man of faith whose life began with extraordinary medical challenges and chronic pain.

David was exposed to a medical experiment shortly after birth that resulted in devastating long-term consequences. He grew up with birth defects and chronic pain and reached a point in his early adulthood where he questioned whether life was worth continuing.

Then something changed.

David found faith, discovered hope, and eventually felt called to spend his life helping others Renew, Restore, Rebuild, and Re-inspire through the love of God.

After decades of international work helping people through grief, trauma, loss, and crisis, David now shares his extraordinary story in his memoir, When the Doctors Say NO! God Says YES!!!

Together, we explore suffering, identity, resilience, faith, crisis, hope, purpose, and what it means to continue living when life doesn’t turn out the way you expected.

Connect with David Ebel

https://www.godsaysyespodcast.com/

What if some heartbreak could be prevented before it ever happens?

What if the warning signs were there—but we were too emotionally invested to see them?

In this episode of Human Enough, I sit down with Dave McLachlan, ICF-certified relationship coach, author of Is He Worthy? Using Red Flags to Find The Perfect Match, and founder of IsHeWorthy.com.

After experiencing the devastating end of his own marriage and the painful aftermath that followed, including a difficult custody battle involving his children, Dave turned his experience into a mission: helping people make better relationship decisions before they become trapped in unhealthy patterns.

We explore red flags, emotional attachment, failed relationships, dating culture, compatibility, heartbreak, and the W.O.R.T.H.Y. methodology Dave developed to help people evaluate relationships more objectively.

But underneath all of that is a deeper question:

Why do we sometimes ignore what we already know?

Together, we explore how to recognize when love is healthy, when it isn’t, and what it really means to choose a partner wisely.

Connect with Dave McLachlan:

https://isheworthy.com/

What happens when you grow up surrounded by circumstances that make you question what your future could ever look like?

What happens when trauma follows you into adulthood…

When addiction becomes part of your story…

When despair makes you question whether life can ever become what you hoped it would be?

In this episode of Human Enough, I sit down with Faisal Ensaun, a high-performance and business coach, entrepreneur, community leader, husband, and father who transformed his own experiences with war, addiction, and personal despair into a life centered around purpose, family, leadership, and helping others reach their potential.

Faisal has coached more than 2,000 people—from students and stay-at-home parents to CEOs and multimillionaires—and today helps individuals and entrepreneurs overcome procrastination, overwhelm, anxiety, trauma, and uncertainty while creating a clearer vision for their lives and businesses.

But beneath the coaching, entrepreneurship, and success is a deeply human story of survival, transformation, and choosing to build a life worth living.

Together, we explore trauma, addiction, purpose, entrepreneurship, anxiety, relationships, leadership, vision, family, and what it means to keep moving forward even when your past has given you every reason to stop.

Connect with Faisal Ensaun:

https://www.faisalensaun.com/

What if the most valuable thing you possess isn’t money, time, or success…

But your life energy?

What if the reason you feel exhausted, anxious, frustrated, or vaguely dissatisfied isn’t always because something is wrong with you—but because your energy is constantly leaking into things that don’t truly matter?

In this episode of Human Enough, I sit down with Karen Bentley, bestselling author of WarriorSTRONG Manifesto, educator, and creator of WarriorSTRONG training programs.

Karen challenges one of our most deeply ingrained assumptions: that we should simply keep going.

Her philosophy is radically different.

Sometimes the most powerful thing you can do is stop.

Karen describes the automatic part of ourselves as the “ego robot”—the part that reacts, seeks revenge, repeats familiar patterns, and runs our lives without conscious choice. She teaches that we can learn to interrupt those automatic programs and reclaim the energy being wasted on them.

We explore life energy, self-awareness, revenge, emotional reactions, self-care, aging, personal power, and the three skills Karen believes can transform the trajectory of a person’s life: stopping, harmlessness, and extreme self-care.

This is a conversation about what happens when we stop living automatically—and start choosing how we want to live.

Connect with Karen Bentley:

https://www.karenbentley.com/

What happens when the life you planned for yourself slowly becomes a life you never expected?

Sean Mitchell grew up in Dallas dreaming of becoming a sportswriter.

But college, the turbulence of the 1960s, teaching, journalism, theater, cultural criticism, and Hollywood gradually pulled him in a completely different direction.

In this episode of Human Enough, I sit down with Sean Mitchell, author, journalist, arts critic, and memoirist, to explore the unexpected journey behind his memoir, Irresistible Calling.

Sean takes us from his childhood in Dallas and his early obsession with sports to the Ivy League, teaching, newspaper journalism, cultural criticism, theater, and eventually profiling Hollywood celebrities.

But beneath the career story is something much more human: a story about identity, ambition, reinvention, uncertainty, creativity, and discovering that the life we imagine for ourselves isn’t always the life we’re meant to live.

Together, we explore why people change direction, why cultural criticism matters, what journalism has lost in the digital age, why memoir can become an act of self-discovery, and what happens when an “irresistible calling” keeps pulling you somewhere you never planned to go.

Connect with Sean Mitchell:

http://seanrileymitchell.com/

What happens when anxiety becomes part of everyday life?

When worry keeps you awake…

When fear begins controlling your decisions…

When exhaustion replaces passion…

And when you start wondering whether you’ll ever feel like yourself again?

In this episode of Human Enough, I sit down with Elke Scholz, MA, RP, REACE, a registered psychotherapist, internationally registered Expressive Art Consultant/Educator, internationally certified EMDR Therapist, author, keynote speaker, and self-described “Anxiety Warrior.”

For more than 35 years, Elke has helped people navigate anxiety, depression, trauma, fear, panic, self-doubt, and major life disruptions. But her work isn’t simply about telling people how to manage anxiety—she has lived through her own anxiety battles and learned how to build a life alongside them.

Through her books Loving Your Life and Anxiety Warrior Volumes One and Two, as well as her creative wellness tools and therapeutic work, Elke focuses on making strategies for emotional freedom accessible and practical.

Together, we explore anxiety, self-awareness, the mind-body connection, vitality, passion, self-doubt, trauma, creativity, and what it means to reclaim your life rather than simply manage your symptoms.

Connect with Elke Scholz:

http://www.lovingyourlifebook.com/

What if some of the most meaningful chapters of our lives are the ones we never expected to write?

In this episode of Human Enough, I sit down with Faye Roots, an Australian author, storyteller, wife, mother, grandmother, and woman of Christian faith whose writing journey has spanned decades and multiple genres.

From winning her first essay competition at twelve to writing novels, memoirs, poetry, inspirational books, spiritual reflections, and children’s stories, Faye has spent a lifetime exploring the relationship between truth, imagination, faith, and the human experience.

But her story isn’t only about creativity. It is also about love, marriage, family, grief, resilience, aging, purpose, and continuing to create even after life’s most difficult chapters.

Now in her eighties, Faye continues to write with one simple desire: to leave people with hope.

Together, we explore faith, creativity, grief, purpose, imagination, resilience, and what it means to keep becoming—even when we think our story is already written.

Connect with Faye Roots:

https://fayerootsauthor.wordpress.com/